The Cult of Youth: Transnational Fascist Youth Movements, 1919 - 1945 WiSe 2024/25, Nicholas Johnson

Aus raumtechnischen Gründen auf 32 Studierende begrenzte Teilnehmerzahl.

This seminar explores the transnational history of fascism’s obsession with youth. Leaning on the work of George Mosse, this class will also introduce students to the methods of cultural as well as educational history.  Beginning with earlier youth movements such as the Wandervogel or Scouting, this class will then turn to the origin of fascist youth movements during the 1920s and 1930s, examine their connections and differences, and then end with a discussion of what educating an entire generation for war meant. Most studies of fascist youth movements tend to focus on Germany exclusively and treat other countries as outliers or footnotes (with the exception of Italy). This class will widen the scope beyond the Hitler Youth and examine, the Italian Opera Nazionale Balilla (ONB) and the Gioventù Italiana del Littorio (GIL), as well as organized youth movements in places like Japan and Spain or the German-American Bund. This class will also introduce education majors to the use of primary sources and different depictions of fascist youth in popular culture.

This seminar will be conducted in English and all assignments are expected to be conducted in English. International students are especially welcome! This is a reading-intensive seminar and students will be expected to participate in class discussions.

Kurs im HIS-LSF