In terms of tactical success — getting into or not getting into the buildings — I think we shouldn’t discount geography. It sounds like the Paris gendarmes had the advantage of defending a bottleneck approach in a city, if that old Maxis game documentation is to be believed, Hauptmann redesigned to be mob-proof. The Capitol Police had to defend a 360° field of approach.
Maybe this isn’t up your alley but I’d be interested in a comparison to the successful Wilmington coup of 1898, and how the politics of white supremacy and Jim Crow of that time compare to our current racial politics. I would argue that we had our own American ‘fascism’ between 1877 and 1965, although fascism is probably not the correct word.
Minor point but DC antifa made the decision not to counter protest Jan 6th despite being well aware of what would be attempted after poor turnout at several Proud Boy related counter protests between Election Day and Jan 6th.
You are absolutely right about this precedent, John. It belongs in a "popular history." I tried to rename the "Roaring" Twenties (with the candidate of the refounded KKK nearly winning the Democrats' presidential nomination in 1924) as the Fascist period in American History, and knew enough about the Stavisky Affair, as a historian of France, to try taking one class to the Alain Resnais movie, "Stavisky," when it came out in 1974, hoping it might help make the murky history of pre-WW2 fascism a bit more familiar. It didn't, and that's not just because no students showed up. Indeed, it's very hard to make this history clear to young U.S. students. The French have an easier time, not just because it happened in France, but also because the first coup d'état in history, Napoleon's 18 Brumaire, 1799, never left their HS textbooks.
Illuminating stuff, thanks. I'm wondering now how left-wing 'imaginative resources' can be cultivated. Also, I guess I missed it when anybody tried to pull this living martyr thing from footnote six
In terms of tactical success — getting into or not getting into the buildings — I think we shouldn’t discount geography. It sounds like the Paris gendarmes had the advantage of defending a bottleneck approach in a city, if that old Maxis game documentation is to be believed, Hauptmann redesigned to be mob-proof. The Capitol Police had to defend a 360° field of approach.
Maybe this isn’t up your alley but I’d be interested in a comparison to the successful Wilmington coup of 1898, and how the politics of white supremacy and Jim Crow of that time compare to our current racial politics. I would argue that we had our own American ‘fascism’ between 1877 and 1965, although fascism is probably not the correct word.
Minor point but DC antifa made the decision not to counter protest Jan 6th despite being well aware of what would be attempted after poor turnout at several Proud Boy related counter protests between Election Day and Jan 6th.
You are absolutely right about this precedent, John. It belongs in a "popular history." I tried to rename the "Roaring" Twenties (with the candidate of the refounded KKK nearly winning the Democrats' presidential nomination in 1924) as the Fascist period in American History, and knew enough about the Stavisky Affair, as a historian of France, to try taking one class to the Alain Resnais movie, "Stavisky," when it came out in 1974, hoping it might help make the murky history of pre-WW2 fascism a bit more familiar. It didn't, and that's not just because no students showed up. Indeed, it's very hard to make this history clear to young U.S. students. The French have an easier time, not just because it happened in France, but also because the first coup d'état in history, Napoleon's 18 Brumaire, 1799, never left their HS textbooks.
Illuminating stuff, thanks. I'm wondering now how left-wing 'imaginative resources' can be cultivated. Also, I guess I missed it when anybody tried to pull this living martyr thing from footnote six