First published in 1999, what the confrontation between democracies and Hitlerism tells us about democracy is the subject of this book. It examines the response of political democracies to the phenomenon of Hitlerism, beginning with democracy in Germany itself in the '20's and '30's, and ending up with Britain and the U.S. in the '40's. Contrary to mythology, this response was far more a failure than a success. An iconoclastic treatment, it anticipates the crises of the future..