What has been the relationship between the radical' and the conservative' right in twentieth-century Europe? In Fascists and Conservatives thirteen distinguished authorities on the European right explore this major theme within Italy, Germany, Spain, Portugal, France, Britain, Austria, Romania, Greece and the Nordic countries. Chapters on individual countries discuss the complex political and ideological relations between fascist and national socialist movements on the one hand and the conservative or established right on the other. The latter embraces monarchies, churches, officer corps, bureaucracies and the organizations which encompass agrarian, financial and industrial capitalism. In some countries the authors examine the fascist/conservative relationship in the very different context of a rightist authoritarian regime, whether this be explicitly fascist as in Mussolini's Italy and Hitler's Germany, or more ambiguous in character such as in Franco's Spain, Salazar's Portugal or Vichy France.
In a wide-ranging introduction, Martin Blinkhorn draws a fascinating picture of a relationship between fascism and conservatism in Europe which comprises subtle and ever-shif elements of collaboration, rivalry and antagonism.