The Green Shirts & the Others: A History of Fascism in Hungary and Rumania

by Nicholas M. Nagy-Talavera

This book is a newly revised edition of Nicholas M. Nagy-Talavera’s classic work The Green Shirts and the Others published by the Hoover Institution Press in 1970. This book is the standard work in English on the history of fascism in Romania and Hungary. The Green Shirts and the Others is the first comprehensive and comparative work in English on the history of the fascist movements in Hungary and Romania. The author presents an objective account of the history of the two countries from 1918 to 1945 and the role of fascist movements during these years. He considers the rise of these movements, the Arrow Cross in Hungary and the Legion of the Archangel Michael in Romania. He considers their evolution and growth during the interwar period, as well as during the tragic periods in which each movement came to power in its respective country. The author then draws conclusions and parallels from the comparative history of the two movements. The author, Nicholas M. Nagy-Talavera, was a leading American expert on the history of Hungary and Romania during the interwar period and World War II. He was a professor of history at California State University, Chico. His other books include Nicolae A Biography .

Genres: History, Romania, Hungary

427 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1970

Reviews

[Dragoș · Rating 4 out of 5]

An absolute classic on the rise and fall of fascism in Romania and (especially) Hungary, the Green Shirts and the Others is a comparative, almost oberver analysis of the phenomenon. The author, a jewish hungarian with deep romanian ties got a first hand look as a kid of the development and crimes of both movements and constructs an almost dispassionate, clinical analysis twenty years later. While the book tends to delve a bit too much in detail at times and fails to treat some other aspects with the same depth it is a classic for a reason and refreshing in its spacing out, background building and step by step analysis of the causes and manifestations of fascism. We tend to consider fascism as monolithic. Nagy-Talavera proves otherwise. Classic, must read historical analysis.

[Bouwulf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honestly a seminal text in wider English language scholarship on the subject, presenting an investigation of the various fascist movements in Romania and Hungary in the context of their respective countries, but also of the position of Jews in their societies, and of the wider Carpatho-Danube/‘No-Mans-Land’/Sudostraum region. I’m often sceptical of lumping together movements in scholarship but the author repeatedly makes sense of the decision to include both countries’ movements to the reader, while stressing the inhomogeneity of both political environments on the ground. Hungary is an arch-chauvinist nightmare of overlapping fascistic, or at the very least violently antisemitic bourgeois or elite organisations competing to outdo each other in their bid to hold power and extract Jewish assets, which culminates in national surrender to the Nazis. Romania is a similarly corrupt and violent system w its own middle class antisemitic fascism, but the story is more the incredibly unique ‘Archangelic Socialism’ of Codreanu that this environment cultivates. Both cases show how decline and mismanagement can lead to huge swathes of the population becoming entranced by fundamentally, and violently irrational politics.

[Anne Cupero · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just returned from Hungary and Romania and have always had an interest in Jewish scenarios in the beginning of the 20th century. This book answered so many questions I did not know I had, about what the political movements in these countries were like. With that said, I found it extremely hard going - I had to stop almost every page to look something up, and the copy that I had had so many typos that it was aggravating. I also have to say that I know partially understand why the name "Codreanu" made such a big splash when I mentioned it to my tour guide.