U.S. President Donald Trump is neither a fascist nor Adolf Hitler, but the United States has conditions that are similar to 1930s Germany, say University of Victoria historians.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 have a worldwide depression,鈥� said Jason Colby, associate professor of history, specializing in U.S. history. 鈥淏ut we do have some pretty angry, xenophobic nationalism rising up.鈥�
He said this anger helped Trump to win the American presidency. It also fuelled moves such as Brexit, in which Britons voted in a referendum to leave the European Union.
Just in case Canadians become a little too comfortable with themselves, similar anger appeared in Toronto with the election of disruptive Rob Ford as mayor.
Colby sees the public support for Trump as a reaction against globalization, the free movement of goods, people and money often supported by economic and intellectual leaders. People have come to believe everything is threatened, whether it鈥檚 social welfare, their jobs or their national/cultural identity.
鈥淭here is a real pulling back [from globalization] and a fear that benefits and livelihoods are at stake,鈥� he said. 鈥淓ven the meaning of their nationalities are at stake.鈥�
Colby, along with three colleagues 鈥� post-doctoral student Nicole Longpr茅, modern British history; Oliver Schmidtke, political science professor; and Tom Saunders, history professor 鈥� will form a panel to discuss the new Angry Populism. It鈥檚 an attempt to examine the popular mood today and what historical trends might tell us.
John Lutz, professor and chair of the history department, will be moderator for the event.
Lutz said for historians to sit on a panel about current events should not be taken to suggest history is repeating itself. History is always contingent on its own unique events.
鈥淗istory does not repeat itself, but historical conditions do repeat themselves,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o we can look back and make some projections of things that might occur.
鈥淪o if you look now at rising income inequality, rising authoritarian regimes and rising xenophobia, you can say: 鈥楬mmm, we鈥檝e seen this before, and the probable outcome could go like this.鈥�
鈥淭hat is, unless something interferes to change things,鈥� he said.
Tom Saunders, a UVic historian whose special interest is Germany of the 1920s and 1930s, said the Great Depression hammered the world in a way few people can now appreciate.
For example, in Germany one in three working people, mostly men, was unemployed. One in two households was affected.
鈥淚t was an intense crisis of unemployment and true suffering at a level that is difficult for us in the West to understand,鈥� Saunders said.
鈥淎nd in Germany, there was a sense that politicians simply didn鈥檛 [understand] the true level of suffering,鈥� he said.
Now, looking at Western politics and the events such as the election of Trump and the vote for Brexit, Saunders sees a few things to put him in mind of 1920s and 1930s Germany.
In both cases, there exists a perception, accurate or not, of a crisis. There is also a sense that those in power are more interested in serving their own interests than those of the people they are elected to serve. So people are looking for someone from outside the political establishment to right things.
鈥淭here seems to be a deep-seated anxiety that we are headed in the wrong direction,鈥� said Saunders, 鈥渁nd it鈥檚 going to take someone with a strong position to cut through what we have been doing, even undo it, in order to rescue us.
鈥淭here is a sense of grievance that someone from the outside can legitimately do what someone who has been working on the inside can鈥檛,鈥� he said.
Angry Populism is on Monday, March 6, 7-9 p.m. in Engineering/Computer Science 123.
