Saving Our Empire from the Bolsheviks

The British Fascisti from a Transnational Perspective

Bibliographic Data

ID11944512
AuthorsRob May (Sheffield Hallam University, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume49
Issue1
Pages70-92
Publication date2020-11-30
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of Imperial & Commonwealth History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0308-6534 • E-ISSN: 1743-9329
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03086534.2020.1848032
OpenAlexW3108157929
LanguageEN
References cited28

This article adds to the emerging field of transnational studies on the far right by focusing upon the overseas exploits of Britain’s first explicitly fascist movement, the British Fascisti (1923–1935). The perceived threat of a Bolshevik uprising led the BF to champion the British Empire in their rhetoric and actions. The main focus of this article is upon the movement’s expansion to 1920s Australia, through the medium of cricket, where they formed branches and caused scandal in equal measure. Included in the discussion is the neglected ‘story’ of how a small fascist group came to prominence in Australian high politics. Australia became a key addition to the movement’s quest to be a transnational force. Furthermore, the Fascisti in Australia represented one of the earliest transnational endeavours by a fascist movement – years before Italy’s abortive Comitati d’Azione per l’Universalita di Roma and more than a decade before Nazism’s mercifully short-lived ‘new order’ in Europe. Using contemporary national and local newspapers from Britain and Australia, as well as the Fascisti’s own publications, this article documents the efforts of the British Fascisti to be a transnational movement though a focussed, yet strangely neglected, case study

Ancient history · Art · British Empire · Empire · Perspective (graphical · Political science · Visual arts · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · European history and politics · History · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society

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