Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini: Totalitarianism in the Twentieth Century

The new, fourth edition of Bruce Pauley’s Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini: Totalitarianism in the Twentieth Century features an updated and expanded bibliographical essay and the latest scholarship on the wartime goals of Hitler and Stalin. Also included is new information on the disintegration of the Soviet empire. Like its predecessors, this book presents an innovative comparison of the origins, development, and demise of the three forms of totalitarianism that emerged in Europe early in the twentieth century. After addressing the failure of the preceding regimes, it traces the development of the totalitarian movements of Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and Fascist Italy—showing how each national leader was able to capture and consolidate authority before the inevitable plummet from power. While offering vivid portraits of the dictators’ youths, early careers, relationships with women, management styles, and cults of personality (both personally crafted and as created by their propaganda machines), Pauley moves beyond conventional narratives of totalitarianism to offer a unique, interpretive comparison of the economics, culture, education, and health–care systems of the three dictatorships. Other themes explored include the regimes′ position on fine arts and popular entertainment, treatment of women and young people, and terroristic oppression of religious institutions and minorities. Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini offers illuminating new insights on many facets of the rise and fall of these three infamous dictatorships of twentieth–century Europe.

List of Illustrations Preface 1. THE IDEOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS     Definitions of Totalitarianism     Marxism–Leninism–Stalinism     Fascism and Nazism   2. THE SEIZURE OF POWER     Russia on the Eve of the Revolution     The Establishment of the Soviet Dictatorship      The Failure of Liberal Italy      The Birth and Triumph of Fascism      Germany and the Impact of World War I      The Weimar Republic and the Rise of the Nazi Movement      The Great Depression and the Nazi Takeover   3. PERSONALITIES AND POLICIES OF THE DICTATORS     Stalin’s Youth and Early Career     Stalin the Demigod     Mussolini: The Young Socialist     The Duce: Strengths and Weaknesses     The Young Hitler     Hitler: The Chaotic Dictator     Hitler’s Private Life and Relations with Women   4. TOTALITARIAN ECONOMIES     The End of the New Economic Policy     Stalin’s War against the Peasants     The First Five–Year Plan and Industrialization     The Fascist Economy     The Economy of National Socialist Germany   5. PROPAGANDA, CULTURE, AND EDUCATION     The Limitations of Propaganda    Soviet Propaganda     Fascist Propaganda     Nazi Propaganda    Totalitarian Culture     Soviet Education     Education in the Fascist States     Youth Groups   6. FAMILY VALUES AND HEALTH     The Conservative Trend in Values    Soviet Women: The Mixed Blessings of Emancipation     Fascist Italy: The Failure of Antifeminism     Women in Nazi Germany: Kinder, Kirche und Küche?     Health and Eugenics in Nazi Germany     Religion: The Basic Incompatibility   7. TOTALITARIAN TERROR     The Great Purges in the Soviet Union     Terror and Persecution in the Fascist States     The Persecution of Jews   8. THE ERA OF TRADITIONAL DIPLOMACY AND WAR, 1933–1941      Hitler’s Foreign Policy Strategy     Hitler as “Peace Lover,” 1933–1935     From Ethiopia to Spain: Fascist Italy at War     Austria and Czechoslovakia: Hitler’s First Conquests     The Approach of War     The Blitzkrieg Campaigns     The Italian Intervention   9. TOTAL WAR, 1941–1945      Hitler Turns East      Stalin’s Preparations for War      The Russian Campaign in 1941      Hitler and the Untermenschen      Hitler and Stalin as War Lords      The Fall of Fascism      The German Home Front      The War in the West      The End of the Third Reich   10. THE COLLAPSE OF SOVIET TOTALITARIANISM       Stalin’s Last Years, 1945–1953       The Khrushchev Era       Reaction and Reform: From Brezhnev to Gorbachev       Problems of the Soviet Economy and Society      Soviet Women in the Last Years of the Regime      Soviet Society in the 1980s: The Balance Sheet     The Revolt of the Satellites and the Disintegration of the Soviet Union      The End of Soviet Totalitarianism   11. LESSONS AND PROSPECTS       The Triumph of Dogmatism       The Structural Flaws of Totalitarianism       The Totalitarian Legacy Bibliographical Essay Index

Bruce F. Pauley , Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Central Florida, is the author of six books on Nazism, anti–Semitism, totalitarianism, and the two world wars, as well as his autobiography, Pioneering History on Two Continents (2014).