And Yet The World We Live In-its

You Know, By 1936, Hitler Was Already Talking Very Loudly About His Desire To Expand To The East. Mussolini, In 1935, Went And Then In The Next Year, Conquered Ethiopia, Acquiring Himself A Colony. So People At The Time Really Saw Fascism Not Just As An Evil But As An Aggressive Evil That Seemed To Be Spreading.

If Your Real Wages Are Declining, Your Job Is At Risk, You Fear Your Children Will Be Worse Off Than You Are, It's Tempting To Want To Blame It All On An Easily Identifiable Target: Muslims, Immigrants, Refugees, Blacks, Jews.

The First World War In So Many Ways Shaped The 20th Century And Really Remade Our World For The Worse.

Some 2,800 Americans Went To Spain [during The Spanish Civil War], And It Was, By Far, The Largest Number Of Americans Before Or Since Who've Ever Joined Somebody Else's Civil War. I Think They Were Primarily People Who Were Deeply Alarmed By The Menace Of Fascism. They Saw This On The Horizon. I Quote One Volunteer, Maury Colow Of New York, Who Said, "for Us It Was Never Franco, It Was Always Hitler."

I Think In Many Ways, The Spanish Civil War Was The First Battle Of World War Ii. After All, Where Else In The World At This Point Did You Have Americans In Uniform Who Were Being Bombed By Nazi Planes Four Years Before The U.s. Entered World War Ii? Hitler And Mussolini Jumped In On The Side Of Francisco Franco And His Spanish Nationalists, Sent Them Vast Amounts Of Military Aid, Airplanes, Tanks - And Mussolini Sent 80,000 Ground Troops As Well - Because They Wanted A Sympathetic Ally In Power. So I Think It Really Was The Opening Act Of World War Ii.