Economic historian Pierpaolo Barbieri presents a new book to ‘understand the economics behind the politics’
The author of a new book looking at Adolf Hitler’s role in the Spanish Civil War says lessons learned from that period in history could provides valuable insights for modern day Europe, specifically how economics trump politics and ideology when it comes to policymaking.
“There have been over ten thousand books written on the Spanish Civil War, but it was clear when I started this project that Franco wanted to forget afterward how much he had depended on Hitler and Mussolini,” says Pierpaolo Barbieri, author of the book Hitler’s Shadow Empire: The Nazis and the Spanish Civil War. “I argue that the Nazis paid for this and intervened in Spain in such a decisive manner not because of ideology but because of economics.”
“Things that look political have other motivations,” he said. Eventually, Hitler became an ideologically driven madman. But his early intervention in Spain showed a more pragmatic and economically calculated style of leadership, he said.
“At the end of the day it was Hitler’s choice and he went with the racial empire over the economic empire, but it wasn’t always so,” Barbieri said.