Teaching about Nazi Germany in the Capital of the Confederacy: Transatlantic Histories in an Age of Far-Right Politics

How can historians teach about Nazi Germany, fascism and resurgent far-right politics without allowing contemporary analogies to dominate the classroom? Rather than emphasising comparisons between interwar European fascism and the contemporary United States, this article argues for a pedagogical approach to teaching the history of fascism that highlights transatlantic entanglements, mutual influences and local connections. The article draws on the author's experiences teaching an undergraduate course on ‘Nazi Germany and Fascism’ in Richmond, Virginia, the former capital of the Confederacy. Encouraging students to historicise transatlantic far-right connections, and to explore how the local communities near their campuses grappled with European fascist movements, can help them engage more deeply with a history that feels simultaneously too distant and too urgent.