Policing Interwar Europe Continuity, Change and Crisis, 1918-40

by Blaney, Jr., Gerald

• ISBN13: 9781403992642
• ISBN10: 1403992649
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-01-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

The convulsions of the First World War left considerable economic, social and political instability in their wake, bringing with them significant challenges to the various regimes of Interwar Europe. As a result, great emphasis was placed on the need to maintain order as well as to reform the apparatus of the state to meet the demands and expectations of their populations. One of the most crucial institutions for achieving these aims was the police, as their loyalty to a regime, as well as their commitment to its ideology and policies, could prove instrumental in the success of that regime's objectives and, ultimately, its survival. Policing Interwar Europe contains studies of ten different countries facing similar problems in distinct circumstances, and provides an unique opportunity for comparing how the various regimes of the period attempted to cope with the issues of policing, protest and public order. Book jacket.

Author Biography

GERALD BLANEY, JR. is Researcher in Contemporary Spanish History in the Cañada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he also teaches. He is completing a thesis on the Spanish Civil Guard, and has published several works about policing issues in Spain in the 1930s.

Table of Contents

Introduction; G.Blaney * The Difficult Construction of a "Republican" Police: The Experience of the French Third Republic; J.Berliere * Keeping Order in Republican Spain, 1931-1936: A Reassessment; G.Blaney * Performing Law Enforcement in Weimar Berlin; S.F.Hall * Police, Republic, Nation: The Czechoslovak State Police and the Construction of a Multinational Democracy, 1918-1925; S.Ronsin * Turbulent Times: The Dutch Police Between Two World Wars; J.P.E.G.Smeets * Traffic, Telephones and Police Boxes: The Deterioration of Beat Policing in Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester between the World Wars; J.Klein * Guardians of the Republic? Portugal's Guarda Nacional Republicana and the Politicians during the 'New' Old Republic of 1919-1926; S.Lloyd-Jones * The Polish Police Services in the Interwar Period, 1918-1939; A.Misiuk * Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Revisited: Policing Interwar Bulgaria; D.Dimov * Mussolini's Policemen, 1922-1943; J.Dunnage