Peace In Their Time

The end of WWI left Hitler an aimless soldier without a cause to fight for, but his ability to work a crowd began to emerge while investigating micro-political parties as part of an army assignment. Before long he had gotten himself signed up for a little group that would eventually be called the Nazis, and he got to work building a life for himself in politics.    Bibliography for this episode: ...

The misadventures of young Hitler continue in the big city of Vienna. And by misadventures I mean he lands in a homeless shelter once the money he got from his family ran out. But it won't be the end of him, and he'll eventually eke out an impoverished life first in Vienna, and then later Munich, before finding a greater purpose to his life in being a soldier during WWI.   Bibliography for this ep...

It's finally time I covered the early days of Hitler and the Nazi party. I'm actually kind of proud that in a podcast about the context for how WWII happened that I haven't had to focus on them for thirty episodes. But it's finally time to introduce the bad guys, and just what they were doing in their more modest days, before they made their successful bid to control Germany. These next two episod...

The years of 1924-29 represented a kind of golden age for Weimar Germany, and as a consequence not as much happened compared to the five years previous, so I'm compressing it into a single episode. But as relatively nice as those years were, they were also deceptive. All the problems of the past had only been papered over, not solved. Material conditions improved enough to encourage people not to...

Germany's slide into chaos continues this week as all those ultra-right types festering in Bavaria decide the moment had come to overthrow the government. For those on the up and up with early Nazi history, this should be familiar to you as the Beer Hall Putsch. But there's also some light at the end of the tunnel as everyone realizes the crisis could not continue, and with the help of a few leade...

Just as Germany got its internal problems papered over (momentarily), a really big international one popped up. Going all-in on a world war and losing left Germany with a gargantuan reparations bill that they were unable to pay. Both because they didn't have the money, and just as importantly, because the Germans deluded themselves into thinking they shouldn't have to pay it. Cue a French military...

In the aftermath of the Kapp Putsch, things finally quieted down for Weimar Germany. The Freikorps started to be wound down and the Left found itself in a period of transition, so the time of revolution and counter-revolution faded into the background for a time. But with this new state constantly being at odds with itself, the problems never really went away, they just stayed in that background....

With the 1918-19 Revolution crushed, the victorious Ebert government probably thought it had some space to start picking up the pieces. Well, think again, because the Freikorps were actively hostile to the new government that they saw as little different than the revolutionaries. Almost from the moment the first dust settled, those groups started plotting against the new state.    Bibliography for...

Bavaria is a region of Germany that had always kept some distance from the larger nation, and maintained its own identity (and at the time even their own monarch) within the Empire. This independent streak continued into the German Revolution of 1918-19 as events there happened concurrently but separately with what was happening nationally, with the region almost breaking away.    Bibliography for...

With revolution gripping Germany, the nation's establishment turned desperate. They unleashed the Freikorps, paramilitary units composed of angry and embittered veterans returning home, all across Germany. What resulted was a nightmare of retribution as the soldiers not only fought to prevent Socialism from taking root, but also took out their frustrations from losing WWI on their own people.    B...

With World War One lost, the edifice of Imperial Germany falls apart. But as one door closes, another is opened, and a free for all begins to decide on what a post-Kaiser Germany will look like. The workers and soldiers of the nation take to the streets while the old establishment scrambles to keep as much of their power as they possibly can.    Bibliography for this episode:  Evans, Richard The C...

Oh boy, it's the Germans. You've either been waiting for or dreading this one. The instability of 20s Germany was critical in making sure a lasting, peaceful equilibrium could not be established in Europe. And that instability was caused by the disintegration of Imperial Germany under the stress of WWI. Turns out staking your legitimacy on militarism only works if you win every time, and to start...

This week is the wrap-up on the UK during the 1920s, and all the labor tensions that have plagued the nation up to this point bubble over into a general strike. Workers all over the country walk out and for a brief window Britain is shutdown in a final attempt to rectify working conditions. Plus there's the general wrap-up on the decade up to the Great Depression, and a look at how Britain used it...

Returning to the domestic UK, the political character of the nation at the end of 1923 continued to evolve beyond the simple conservative/liberal split of yesteryear. It was time for the Labour party to finally move out of opposition and into a leadership role. And like so many things from these years, it didn't go well. This episode has everything. Politics! Economics! That's everything.    Bibli...

Not content with its gains in the Middle East, Britain also wanted to secure its influence in Turkey after WWI. With their Greek allies taking the lead in occupying Turkish lands and Britain itself securing its influence over vital waterways, it initially looked as though things would go their way. But a mixture of imperial rivalry and Greece's lack of resources meant the whole thing was destined...

With the Irish War for Independence escalating into a problem that could no longer be played down by the UK, the violence started to get out of control. But so soon after WWI the British were not inclined to commit to a full occupation of the island, and would start looking for an exit from one of their oldest imperial possessions.    Bibliography for this episode:  Hopkinson, Michael The Irish Wa...

If the post-wars years after WWI saw the British momentarily triumphant, they also found themselves having to address all the problems they had been putting off. Closest to home was Ireland. After having failed for years to make a satisfactory settlement on the self-governance of the island, Britain would be directly challenged by a rebellion, just at the time its focus was firmly turned elsewhere...

With the United Kingdom moving into the post-war years, the nation had to grapple with the changes wrought by WWI. Internationally the world looked very different, and Britain's attentions had to be split across the globe. It was internally though that presented the biggest challenges, as a nation that had previously been very big into small government found itself with a sprawling administration...

This week we get started on the last of the big western Entente powers, the United Kingdom. Often overlooked against the wreckage of the big battles of WWI, the war years transformed British life all out of recognition. What was once a very laissez faire country found itself centralized to an unfathomable degree, and it would be in an environment of political transition that the British would have...

With the invasion of the Ruhr backfiring on them, the French electorate swung to the left and put a new coalition in power. The wealthy elites of the country, ever sensitive to the specter of Socialism, did not take the change well. Just as the Ruhr crisis was being wound down, a financial one back at home was started.    Bibliography for this episode:  Adamthwaite, Anthony Grandeur and Misery: Fr...

Having won both war and peace, France then faced the challenge of actually enforcing that victory. Namely, they had to secure their finances and that meant turning the screws to the Germans and extracting every dime they could from them. Easier said than done, as the Germans were flat broke and France's erstwhile ally, the British, were half-hearted at best in helping get the money. The quest to s...

Today we get introduced to France, the land of wine, cheese, and staggering loss. A lot of what happens in the decades we cover revolves around France and its ability, or inability, to control events happening in Europe. So to start off, this episode provides the context that France finds itself in during the interwar era. And also just what the cost of winning WWI actually entailed for the nation...

Today is the last episode on Italy before the Great Depression and is also our first biography episode! Benito Mussolini is remembered mostly for his ineffectualness, and is often seen as the bumbling sidekick to the much more dangerous Adolf Hitler. And while that certainly isn't exactly wrong, it also focuses on those last years when everything got away from him. His early life, presented here,...

Once the business of taking power in Italy was completed, the Fascists began to turn inward. Mussolini starts to distance himself from the old guard Fascists, the businessmen of the country successfully defend their economic privileges in exchange for their support, and even the Catholic Church comes around. Plus I cover a grab-bag of Italy's foreign adventures in this period.    Bibliography for...

After the March on Rome, Mussolini found himself in charge as Prime Minister, but the Fascists were still a minority party. But now that any viable opposition had demonstrated that they were unwilling to resist him in any meaningful way, he began the work of breaking apart Liberal Italy and bending the political system to his will.    Bibliography for this episode:  Bosworth, RJB Mussolini's Italy...