For 70 years Nazism has been synonymous in popular culture with evil. Now people are marching down the streets of American cities in torchlit parades chanting “Blood and Soil” and doing Hitler salutes.

What are the parallels between these self-styled contemporary Nazis and their historic forebears? What is the appeal of these ideas to people in America today? And if Nazism is indeed resurgent, what is the best way to confront it?

Today we’re speaking to the historian Dr Mark Jones, who is an Irish Research Council Fellow at the UCD School of History and the Centre for War Studies.

Mark’s recent book Founding Weimar focused on the role of violence in shaping the course and outcome of the German Revolution of 1918-19.

As an expert on the growth of fascism and the effects of political violence we thought Mark would have an interesting perspective on what is happening in the United States today.

You can follow Mark on Twitter @MarkWillJones

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