Historian Richard Evens
Credit: Torsten Silz
Richard Evans established himself as arguably the pre-eminent historian of 20th-century Germany with his astonishing trilogy on the rise and fall of the Third Reich. Beginning after the cataclysm of the First World War with The Coming of the Third Reich; continuing with the Nazi regime’s first six years in power; and concluding with Nazism’s military aggression, genocide, and eventual defeat, Evans’ books explore Germany from the perspective of both its leaders and its citizens, including perpetrators, victims, and everyone in between.
America is not Germany, and this is not 1938, let alone 1933. But as an expert on fascism and as a historian who has written about how authoritarian regimes accumulate power, Evans has particular insight into the early days of the Trump administration. (The new movie Denial, which is about the libel suit brought against historian Deborah Lipstadt by Holocaust denier David Irving, features Evans—or rather an actor playing him—as the crucial witness, as […]
Both Trump and Hitler rose by paying attention to issues neglected by the elite classes.
Trump was legitimately elected by a normal process, Hitler was not.
From NAFTA to TPP, the Democratic Party elite has clearly been in the camp of the corporatists.
Interesting article and comparison. I would like to point out that Aaron Russo travelled around the country speaking to small groups and whomever would listen in early 2000’s. He made the film America Freedom to Fascism which pointed out fascism already existed here and now and more was on the way. Few people listened and he was dismissed as a nut job. Ron Paul soft peddled the issue to the mainstream and he was marginalized by the red not-sees and the blue not-sees per usual. These are only a couple examples of people with visibility who rang the alarm. Now we are witnessing what happens when red flags are ignored by normalizing the status quo and branding people as nut jobs & listening only to the echo chambers of the right and left. The U.S. has been highjacked by corporate fascists but this happened long before Trump. The E.U. is supposed to be some grand vision but from the very beginning it looked to me like a wealth extraction vehicle, political and economic control mechanism that will ultimately fail once its purpose is achieved. I am open to being wrong but it doesn’t look good from my vantage point. Fascism has been on the menu, we have been eating it for decades and finally some people are realizing it doesn’t taste very good because the presentation has changed??