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The British National Party in Comparative Perspective

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Contemporary British Fascism

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Abstract

In the postwar cultural climate, the odious atrocities associated with Nazism starved Western Europe’s extreme right of social and political respectability. Not surprisingly, right-extremist parties were pushed to the very margins of mainstream society, and hence for many years, while the extreme right continued to draw breath, it barely existed as a political force. Admittedly, it would emerge from the shadows every once in a while, but these episodes were short-lived and sporadic. The examples of Pierre Poujade in 1950s France1 or the National Democratic Party in 1960s Germany2 readily spring to mind. Since the 1980s, however, after Jean-Marie Le Pen’s Front National had blazed the trail, right-extremists have taken on a more serious and lasting presence in the party systems of several Western European countries. The times change and over the course of last two decades right-wing extremism in continental Europe has been given a new lease of life. In this, our final chapter, we will place our subject within its broader West European context.3

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Notes

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Teesside, UK

    Nigel Copsey (Senior Lecturer in History)

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  1. Nigel Copsey
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© 2004 Nigel Copsey

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Copsey, N. (2004). The British National Party in Comparative Perspective. In: Contemporary British Fascism. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230509160_8

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