JEWISHST 33Q: Stanford Confronts the "Fascist Moment"
Course Description
What made fascism so attractive and so powerful in 20th century Europe, Asia, and throughout the world? How did the Stanford community respond to this political ideology that burst onto the scene in the 1920s and engulfed the world in war in the 1940s? Could fascism have another “moment”—in the present or in the future? Students will consider these and other questions in this course, which will discuss the various definitions and theories of fascism and the major fascist movements of the interwar period (primarily Italian Fascism and German Nazism), as well as how the Stanford community responded to them. The course will not just focus on the military and political aspects of fascism, as is traditionally taught, but also social and cultural aspects of fascism, as well. We’ll also consider how different groups experienced and reacted to fascism, based on racial background, religious affiliation, gender identity, and sexual orientation. This discussion-based course will also include hands-on archival work in Stanford Special Collections and the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Meet the Instructor: Daniela R. P. Weiner
I’m a historian by training who studies modern German and modern Italian history. After earning my PhD in History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and holding a postdoctoral fellowship at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, I now am a Lecturer teaching interdisciplinary liberal education courses in Stanford’s Civic, Liberal, and Global Education (COLLEGE) program. My new book, Teaching a Dark Chapter: History Books and the Holocaust in Italy and the Germanys, was published by Cornell University Press in July 2024.
I first started studying Nazism, Italian Fascism, and the Holocaust when I was an undergraduate at Vassar College. I received a travel grant from the Vassar History Department to analyze Holocaust memorials in Berlin when I was doing research for my senior thesis. This undergraduate experience had a huge impact on the rest of my career, during which I’ve conducted hands-on historical and archival work in four different countries, studying the history and memory of fascism and the Holocaust.”
