British Catholics and Fascism : Religious Identity and Political Extremism Between the Wars

British Catholics and Fascism is a comprehensive study of the way in which British Catholic communities reacted to fascism both at home and abroad. Drawing on substantial primary research, Tom Villis sheds new light on religious identity and political extremism in early twentieth-century Britain. He examines the careers and thought of numerous prominent Catholic writers and cultural commentators as well as the role of the Catholic press more generally, the views of the hierarchy and the overtures which the British Union of Fascists made to the Catholic communities. Debates about fascism became symbolic of the wider difficulties in articulating a religious political critique in an increasingly secular political culture. For many Catholics, pro-fascism became a way of expressing their own distinct political and social identity in a society which largely held different views.