Shirt Movements in Interwar Europe: a Totalitarian Fashion

The article deals with a typical phenomenon of the interwar period: the proliferation of socio-political movements expressing their “mood” and identity via a paramilitary uniform mainly composed of a coloured shirt. The analysis of 34 European shirt movements reveals some common features in terms of...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Juan Francisco Fuentes
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Associação de Actividades Científicas 2018-05-01
Series:Ler História
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/lerhistoria/3560
_version_ 1797309368863031296
author Juan Francisco Fuentes
author_facet Juan Francisco Fuentes
author_sort Juan Francisco Fuentes
collection DOAJ
description The article deals with a typical phenomenon of the interwar period: the proliferation of socio-political movements expressing their “mood” and identity via a paramilitary uniform mainly composed of a coloured shirt. The analysis of 34 European shirt movements reveals some common features in terms of colour, ideology and chronology. Most of them were consistent with the logic and imagery of interwar totalitarianisms, which emerged as an alleged alternative to the decaying bourgeois society and its main political creation: the Parliamentary system. Unlike liberal pluralism and its institutional expression, shirt movements embody the idea of a homogeneous community, based on a racial, social or cultural identity, and defend the streets, not the ballot boxes, as a new source of legitimacy. They perfectly mirror the overwhelming presence of the “brutalization of politics” (Mosse) and “senso-propaganda” (Chakhotin) in interwar Europe.
first_indexed 2024-03-08T01:26:14Z
format Article
id doaj.art-db2deb36b2384472b43893a996a9371c
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 0870-6182
language English
last_indexed 2024-03-08T01:26:14Z
publishDate 2018-05-01
publisher Associação de Actividades Científicas
record_format Article
series Ler História
spelling doaj.art-db2deb36b2384472b43893a996a9371c2024-02-14T14:00:52ZengAssociação de Actividades CientíficasLer História0870-61822018-05-017215117310.4000/lerhistoria.3560Shirt Movements in Interwar Europe: a Totalitarian FashionJuan Francisco FuentesThe article deals with a typical phenomenon of the interwar period: the proliferation of socio-political movements expressing their “mood” and identity via a paramilitary uniform mainly composed of a coloured shirt. The analysis of 34 European shirt movements reveals some common features in terms of colour, ideology and chronology. Most of them were consistent with the logic and imagery of interwar totalitarianisms, which emerged as an alleged alternative to the decaying bourgeois society and its main political creation: the Parliamentary system. Unlike liberal pluralism and its institutional expression, shirt movements embody the idea of a homogeneous community, based on a racial, social or cultural identity, and defend the streets, not the ballot boxes, as a new source of legitimacy. They perfectly mirror the overwhelming presence of the “brutalization of politics” (Mosse) and “senso-propaganda” (Chakhotin) in interwar Europe.https://journals.openedition.org/lerhistoria/3560FascismNazismTotalitarianismShirt movementsInterwar period
spellingShingle Juan Francisco Fuentes
Shirt Movements in Interwar Europe: a Totalitarian Fashion
Ler História
Fascism
Nazism
Totalitarianism
Shirt movements
Interwar period
title Shirt Movements in Interwar Europe: a Totalitarian Fashion
title_full Shirt Movements in Interwar Europe: a Totalitarian Fashion
title_fullStr Shirt Movements in Interwar Europe: a Totalitarian Fashion
title_full_unstemmed Shirt Movements in Interwar Europe: a Totalitarian Fashion
title_short Shirt Movements in Interwar Europe: a Totalitarian Fashion
title_sort shirt movements in interwar europe a totalitarian fashion
topic Fascism
Nazism
Totalitarianism
Shirt movements
Interwar period
url https://journals.openedition.org/lerhistoria/3560
work_keys_str_mv AT juanfranciscofuentes shirtmovementsininterwareuropeatotalitarianfashion