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Writer's pictureJonathon

Power and Authority in the Modern World: A Reading List

Updated: Aug 26, 2020

The following books and resources are among the most useful I have found in preparing for the new NSW HSC Modern History Core Study: Power and Authority in the Modern World, 1919 - 1946. I do not claim to have read all the books and I am not suggesting that reading all of these would be needed to prepare for the new Core. These are simply some of the best resources I have found for wider reading in preparation to teach this new topic.


1. The Treaties that ended WW1

Because this part is considered the ‘survey’ of this topic, teachers and students may not need to complete too much additional reading on the peace treaties that ended the end of the Great War. Nevertheless, the following would be good places to start:


2. The Interwar Dictatorships

Benito Mussolini in 1940

There are two main parts to this section of this topic: 1. The factors explaining the rise of dictators in the interwar period and, 2. The key features of three ‘dictatorships’: Russia, Italy and Japan.[1] For the amount of factual detail students are likely to need in the context of this topic and the exam currently connected to it, I would argue that it is not necessary to read large works of history that are dedicated to the individual regimes in Russia, Italy and Japan. The best approach is to review some of the excellent general histories of the interwar period and the dictatorships that emerged within that time-frame. Unfortunately, the Japanese regime is rarely included in broad histories of the interwar dictatorships so there may be some need to consult specific histories of Japan for extra reading (but that is not the case for Russia and Italy). I have divided the suggested works for this section into two parts. The first deals with general histories of the interwar period and the dictatorships of Russia and Italy. The second provides some sources for the regime in Japan.


a. The interwar period and the dictatorships in Russia and Italy

  • Richard Evans, ‘The Age of Dictatorship: Europe 1918 – 1989’, lecture series presented at Gresham College, London, 2006 (lectures: Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini)

  • Ian Kershaw, To Hell and Back: Europe 1914 – 1949, Penguin, 2015

  • Stephen Lee, European Dictatorships: 1918 – 1945 (4th Ed.), Routledge, 2010 (this would also be good to use for 'The Nazi regime to 1939')

  • Mark Mazower, Dark Continent: Europe’s Twentieth Century, Penguin, 1998

  • Richard Overy, The Inter-War Crisis: 1919 – 1939 (3rd Ed.), Routledge, 2016

  • Bruce Pauley, Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini: Totalitarianism in the Twentieth Century (4th Ed.), John Wiley and Sons Inc, 2014 (this would also be good to use for 'The Nazi regime to 1939')

  • Allan Todd, Democracies and Dictatorships: Europe and the World, 1919 – 1989, Cambridge University Press, 2001

  • David Williamson, The Age of the Dictators: A Study of the European Dictatorships, 1918 – 1953, Pearson-Longman, 2007


b. The interwar regime in Japan

The following texts are not generally dedicated to Japan in the interwar years but they all include chapters that engage with this period.

Imperial Japanese Navy Commemoration Day, 1944
  • Curtis Andressen, A Short History of Japan, Allen and Unwin, 2002

  • Andrew Gordon, A Modern History of Japan, Oxford University Press, 2013

  • Stephen S. Large, ‘Oligarchy, Democracy, and Fascism’ in William M. Tsutsui (ed.) A Companion to Japanese History, Blackwell Publishing, 2007

  • Conrad Totman, A History of Japan (2nd Ed.), Blackwell Publishing, 2005


3. The Nazi Regime to 1939

The books identified here cover both the rise to power of Hitler and the Nazi Party and their rule up to 1939.

  • Thomas Childers, The Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany, Simon and Schuster, 2017 (this book has been favourably reviewed by Richard Evans)

  • Richard Evans, The Coming of the Third Reich, Penguin, 2004

  • Richard Evans, The Third Reich in Power, Penguin, 2006

  • Chris Hinton and John Hite, Weimar and Nazi Germany, Hodder Ed., 2000 (this resource includes many primary and secondary sources)

  • Ian Kershaw, The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation (4th Ed.), Arnold, 2000

  • Richard Overy, The Dictators, Allen Lane, 2004


4. The search for Peace and Security

Some of the books in the following list cover the themes and issues for this part of the syllabus quite extensively.

  • Ruth Henig, The League of Nations, Haus Publishing, 2010

  • Paul Kennedy, The Parliament of Man: The Past, Present, and Future of the United Nations, Random House, 2006

  • Bob Reinalda, Routledge History of International Organizations: From 1815 to the Present Day, Routledge, 2009


 

Endnotes


[1] As many historians have pointed out, there are good reasons for avoiding the label ‘dictatorship’ in relation to the Japanese regime during the interwar period but the current NSW Modern History syllabus uses this term so I have simply followed that here.

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