Bye Bye Blackshirt

In the 1930s, fascism seemed to be sweeping Europe. And in Britain, Oswald Mosley and his ''blackshirts'' were on the march too. The story of the resistance to Mosley at Cable Street in East End is well known. But Krantz also brings out two less well known dimensions of the fightback against Mosley. The British Union of Fascists placed antisemitism at the centre of their programme. And Jews, especially young Jews influenced by socialist and communist ideas, alongside others played a key role in challenging Mosley''s supporters. Krantz also shows that the mid-1930s witnessed a truly national anti-fascist mass movement, far beyond East London, as confrontations with the BUF took place in city after city in these pivotal years. A book that resonates with lessons for today.