First published in 1935, The Growth of Fascism in Great Britain discusses how the tendencies which have produced fascism on the European continent are by no means absent in England. The growth of fascism in Englands green and pleasant land is not only to be gauged by the size of the British Union of Fascists. Sir Oswald Mosleys movement follows the German and Italian models, but the economic, political, and psychological conditions of Great Britain show that the holders of power here have no immediate need of the continental method. Our conditions have dictated different tactics: it is in such measures as the Trades Disputes Act, the Means Test, the Sedition Bill, that we find the evidence of the growing attempt to achieve the substance if not the uniform of Fascism. Until it is marshalled as ably as it is here, even the serious citizen will find it difficult to form a true picture of the accumulation of this evidence. This book will cause to think all those, of whatever political creed, who love liberty.
Mr. Rudlin then proceeds to discuss the essential questions of the future: will British conditions in the end demand open Fascism? In what circumstances are we to expect the dropping of Mr. Baldwin and the taking aboard of more glamorous pilots? With an introduction by Harold J. Laski, this is an important historical document for the students of British history.
