The history of Catholic political movements has long been a missing dimension of the history of Europe during the twentieth century. Martin Conway explores the fascinating history of Catholic political movements in Europe between 1918 and 1945, demonstrating the crucial role which Catholics played in the rise of fascism in Italy and Germany, the events of the Spanish Civil War and of the Second World War. Drawing on the findings of recent research, Conway shows how Catholic political movements formed a vital element of the political life of Europe during the inter-war years. In countries as diverse as France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Austria, as well as further east in Poland, Slovakia, Croatia, and Lithuania, Catholic political parties flourished. Inspired by the values of Catholicism, these movements fought for their own political ideals; hostile to both liberal democracy and totalitarian fascism, Catholics were a 'third force' in European politics. During the Second World War, Catholic political movements continued to pursue their own goals; some chose to fight alongside the German armies, other groups joined Resistance movements to fight against German oppression and for a new social and political order based on Catholic principles. Catholic Politics in Europe will provide an original key point of reference for twentieth century history, for comparison with fascist and communist movements of the period, and will give insight into the present-day character of Catholicism.

The history of Catholic political movements has long been a missing dimension of the history of Europe during the twentieth century. Martin Conway explores the fascinating history of Catholic political movements in Europe between 1918 and 1945, demonstrating the crucial role which Catholics played in the rise of fascism in Italy and Germany, the events of the Spanish Civil War and of the Second World War. Drawing on the findings of recent research, Conway shows how Catholic political movements formed a vital element of the political life of Europe during the inter-war years. In countries as diverse as France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Austria, as well as further east in Poland, Slovakia, Croatia, and Lithuania, Catholic political parties flourished. Inspired by the values of Catholicism, these movements fought for their own political ideals; hostile to both liberal democracy and totalitarian fascism, Catholics were a 'third force' in European politics. During the Second World War, Catholic political movements continued to pursue their own goals; some chose to fight alongside the German armies, other groups joined Resistance movements to fight against German oppression and for a new social and political order based on Catholic principles. Catholic Politics in Europe will provide an original key point of reference for twentieth century history, for comparison with fascist and communist movements of the period, and will give insight into the present-day character of Catholicism.

This book examines the role of Catholic parties in inter-war Europe in a systematically pan-European comparative perspective. Specific country chapters address key questions about the parties' membership and social organization; their economic and social policies; and their European and international policies at a time of increasing national and ethnic conflict, and the book includes two survey chapters explaining the origins of political catholicism in 19th century Europe and comparing the parties' interwar development, and two chapters on transnational party contacts. Along with its companion volume, Christian Democracy in Europe Since 1945, also published in 2004, students will have an abundandce of information to guide them through their studies on this fascinating subject.

Die im vorliegenden Band versammelten Aufsätze analysieren die vielfältige Art und Weise, wie der Vatikan, die nationalen Kirchen und einzelne Katholiken mit dem Aufstieg der extremen Rechten in Europa während der 1920er, 1930er und frühen 1940er Jahre umgingen, vom Ende des Ersten Weltkriegs, der mit Recht als einer der wichtigsten Katalysatoren des europäischen Faschismus in der Zwischenkriegszeit gilt, bis zum Schluss und zu den unmittelbaren Nachwirkungen des Zweiten Weltkriegs. Während einige Aufsätze sich auf theoretische, methodologische Probleme konzentrieren, beschäftigen sich die meisten Beiträge mit jeweils einem Land oder einer Region, wo eine faschistische Bewegung oder ein solches Regime zwischen den Kriegen und während des Zweiten Weltkriegs erfolgreich war, und wo es gleichzeitig eine signifikante katholische Präsenz in der Gesellschaft gab. Fast ganz Europa wird behandelt – ein beispielloses Unternehmen - , und eine große Zahl wichtiger Kontexte und Methoden wird untersucht. So wirken die Beiträge mit an der allgemeinen Entwicklung eines interpretativen ‚Cluster‘-Modells, das eine Reihe von Grundmustern der Forschung vereinigt und zukünftige Untersuchungen anregen wird. The papers presented in this volume analyse the many ways in which the Vatican, national Churches and individual catholics dealt with the rise of the extreme right in Europe throughout the 1920s, 1930s and early 1940s, from the end of the First World War, arguably one of the main catalysts of European interwar fascism, to the conclusion and immediate aftermath of the Second World War. While a number of papers focus primarily on theoretical, methodological issues pertaining to the book’s general theme, the majority of papers focus on either a country or region where a fascist movement or regime flourished between the wars and during the Second World War, and where there was a significant catholic presence in society. The various chapters cover almost the entire European continent – an endeavour that is unprecedented –, and they explore a wide range of relevant contexts and methodologies, thus further contributing to the general development of an interpretive ‘cluster’ model that incorporates a series of investigative matrixes, and that will hopefully inspire future research.

This book is the first to reveal the roles of the Christian Democratic parties in postwar Europe, systematically and from a pan-European perspective.

This book explores the phenomena of both Political Catholicism and the growth of Euroscepticism across Eastern and Western Europe. It focuses in particular on Political Catholicism in Poland, but sets this in its wider European context. It examines the nature of Political Catholicism as a political movement, discusses the circumstances in which Political Catholicism, which has traditionally been pro-European, can turn to being Eurosceptic, and argues that Political Catholicism in Poland is a special case because of its Catholic-nationalist nature. The book concludes by assessing the role religion plays in the politics of modern Europe and outlines the implications for the future studies of European integration.

As the first comprehensive monograph on the relations between the Catholic Church and the European Union, this book contains both a detailed historical overview of the political ties between the two complex institutions and a theoretical analysis of their normative orders and mutual interactions.

German Catholicism at War explores the role Roman Catholicism played in shaping the moral economy of German society during the Second World War. Drawing on previously unused source materials, German Catholicism at War examines the complex relationship between Catholics and Nazi authorities and religious responses to the war.

The Catholic Church has always been a major player in European and world history. Whether it has enjoyed a religious dominance or existed as a minority religion, Catholicism has never been diverted from political life. "Priests, Prelates and People" records the Church struggling to adapt to the new political landscape ushered in by the French Revolution, and shows how the formation of nation states and identities was both helped and hindered by the Catholic establishment. It portrays the Vatican increasingly out of step in the wake of world war, Cold War and the massive expansion of the developing world, with its problems of population growth and under-development.

A major new history of how democracy became the dominant political force in Europe in the second half of the twentieth century What happened in the years following World War II to create a democratic revolution in the western half of Europe? In Western Europe's Democratic Age, Martin Conway provides an innovative new account of how a stable, durable, and remarkably uniform model of parliamentary democracy emerged in Western Europe—and how this democratic ascendancy held fast until the latter decades of the twentieth century. Drawing on a wide range of sources, Conway describes how Western Europe's postwar democratic order was built by elite, intellectual, and popular forces. Much more than the consequence of the defeat of fascism and the rejection of Communism, this democratic order rested on universal male and female suffrage, but also on new forms of state authority and new political forces—primarily Christian and social democratic—that espoused democratic values. Above all, it gained the support of the people, for whom democracy provided a new model of citizenship that reflected the aspirations of a more prosperous society. This democratic order did not, however, endure. Its hierarchies of class, gender, and race, which initially gave it its strength, as well as the strains of decolonization and social change, led to an explosion of demands for greater democratic freedoms in the 1960s, and to the much more contested democratic politics of Europe in the late twentieth century. Western Europe's Democratic Age is a compelling history that sheds new light not only on the past of European democracy but also on the unresolved question of its future.