"Order, Authority, Nation": Neo-Socialism and the Fascist Destiny of an Anti-Fascist Discourse by Mathieu Hikaru Desan A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Sociology) in the University of Michigan 2016 Doctoral Committee: Professor George Steinmetz, Chair Professor Howard Brick Assistant Professor Robert S. Jansen Emeritus Professor Howard Kimeldorf Professor Gisèle Sapiro Centre national de la recherche scientifique/École des hautes études en sciences sociales Acknowledgments Scholarly production is necessarily a collective endeavor. Even during the long isolated hours spent in dusty archives, this basic fact was never far from my mind, and this dissertation would be nothing without the community of scholars and friends that has nourished me over the past ten years. First thanks are due to George Steinmetz, my advisor and Chair. From the very beginning of my time as a graduate student, he has been my intellectual role model. He has also been my champion throughout the years, and every opportunity I have had has been in large measure thanks to him. Both his work and our conversations have been constant sources of inspiration, and the breadth of his knowledge has been a vital resource, especially to someone whose interests traverse disciplinary boundaries. George is that rare sociologist whose theoretical curiosity and sophistication is matched only by the lucidity of this thought. Nobody is more responsible for my scholarly development than George, and all my work bears his imprint. I will spend a lifetime trying to live up to his scholarly example. I owe him an enormous debt of gratitude. Within the Department of Sociology, Howard Kimeldorf and Rob Jansen also deserve special thanks. Both have been especially generous with their time and attention, and I have benefitted immensely from their careful readings of my work throughout the years. Howard has been an exemplar of clarity and rigor. He pushed me to discipline my thinking, and he has done ii more than he knows to improve my writing. I always looked forward to our conversations over the years, and his free and easy manner was a welcome respite in the often anxiety-inducing world of graduate school. His support has meant much to me, both professionally and personally. When I think about what kind of colleague I would like to be, I think especially of Howard. Rob has also been an invaluable mentor and friend. I have depended on him countless times for professional and intellectual advice, and nobody has helped me more to navigate being an early career scholar. His knowledge of the field, his work ethic, and the incisiveness of his comments have been continued sources of admiration. As I moved from the research to the writing phase of this dissertation, and as I juggled writing with going on the job market, Rob's help was crucial in making everything more concrete and manageable. He came through in a moment when I was feeling particularly overwhelmed and adrift, and it is in large measure thanks to him that everything came together in the end. Howard Brick has been my lifeline outside Sociology, and the source of many stimulating conversations. I have benefitted greatly from his deep knowledge of intellectual, socialist, and left history. Though an ocean separates our areas of study, our substantive interests converge, and I have left every conversation with Howard with a better understanding of what exactly my own work is about. He is a paragon of inter-disciplinary thinking, of which sociology is much in need. I am lucky to have had his guidance. I also owe a huge debt to the final member of my dissertation committee, Gisèle Sapiro, who welcomed me among her students during my time in Paris. Thanks to her, I did not spend a year and a half rotting away in the archives. Instead, I was fully integrated into a scientific community of which she was the animating force. This experience was critical to my intellectual and professional growth, and I owe it all to Gisèle's generosity. More directly, she did much to iii help me with moving my dissertation project forward. She was a consistent source of ideas and references that proved to be absolutely essential to my work. Her own work, too, has been a touchstone. Without Gisèle's hospitality and brilliance, this project would hardly have gotten off the ground. I am forever indebted to her commitment to scholarly internationalism. More broadly, I am lucky to have been part of the Department of Sociology at the University of Michigan. It was a privilege to be trained among the best sociologists in the country, and I have learned a great deal from all the excellent faculty and students. Among the faculty, I want to specifically mention Barbara Anderson, Sarah Burgard, Fatma Müge Göçek, PJ McGann, Peggy Somers, and Geneviève Zubrzycki. Among my fellow students in the department, Andy Clarno, Mariana Craciun, Claire Decoteau, Kim Greenwell, Camilo Leslie, Josh Mound, Atef Said, Jessica Wyse, Jon Zelner, and Sarah Zelner were especially important in getting me through the ups and downs of academic life. I also want to thank the organizers and participants of the Social Theory and Culture, History, and Politics workshops, both of which became my intellectual homes within the department. Outside the Department of Sociology, George Hoffmann and Elizabeth Wingrove were particularly supportive, and both had a hand in making the research for this dissertation possible. Federico Pous has been a loyal friend and intellectual accomplice. My involvement with the Graduate Employees' Organization was also dear to me, and it was the nexus through which I assembled the wider intellectual community that supported me over the years. Not only did my time in GEO teach me how to do politics, it also taught me how to study it. The research for this dissertation would not have been possible without a generous fellowship from the Georges Lurcy Charitable and Educational Trust. In France, I was entirely dependent on the friendly staff at the following archives: Archives Nationales; Archives de la iv Préfecture de Police; Bibliothèque de Documentation Internationale Contemporaine; Centre d'Études, de Documentation, d'Information et d'Action Sociales; Centre d'Histoire Sociale du XXème Siècle; Institut d'Histoire Sociale; Office Universitaire de Recherche Socialiste. Virginie Hébrard and Pierre Rigoulot of the Institut d'Histoire Sociale deserve special thanks for their extensive help and kindness in making available a myriad of archival and primary materials. Gilles Morin was a gracious guide through the archives, as well as an indispensable resource on the history of French socialism. Running into him was always a pleasure. I also thank the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales and the Centre Européen de Sociologie et de Science Politique for welcoming me during my time in Paris. Johan Heilbron, in particular, advised me regularly on the progress of my research, and we have since become collaborators. I thank him especially for his goodwill and counsel. I have made many friends in my years in Ann Arbor and Paris, all of whom have sustained me in the long and grueling process of conceiving, researching, and writing this dissertation. These friends are too numerous to thank by name, but I wish to single out those who have been by my side in the home stretch: Sandy Bledsoe, Matt Burton, Ian Dickinson, Alex Fraser, Paul Lagneau-Ymonet, Pascal Massinon, Grant Mandarino, Ian Mays, Dan Patch, Monica Patel, Shannon Riffe, Sebastien Roux, Kristin Schroeder, and Josh Shipper. Finally, I would like to thank my family. More than anybody, my parents, Philippe and Eriko, are responsible for instilling in me the intellectual habitus that has allowed me to come this far in my academic career. I thank and blame them in equal parts for setting me down this path. My wife, Beth Coddington, has been my best friend and constant companion for over ten years. In that time, she has read nearly every word I have written, including every word of this dissertation. If it is at all coherent, it is largely thanks to her. More importantly, I would never v have been able to get through graduate school were it not for her encouragement, love, and patience. I owe her everything and more. Finally, I need to thank Charlie. Although on one level he was frankly more of a hindrance than a help in assuring the timely completion of this dissertation, on a deeper level I know that the fear of disappointing was just the kick in the ass I needed. vi Table of Contents Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... ii List of Figures ............................................................................................................................. viii List of Illustrations ....................................................................................................................... ix List of Abbreviations .....................................................................................................................x Abstract ........................................................................................................................................ xii Introduction ....................................................................................................................................1 Part I. Tactics and Doctrine: The 1933 Socialist Schism and the Birth of Neo-Socialism ....53 Chapter