Crusade From Afar: British Conservative Revolutionaries and the Nationalist Cause in Spain

The Spanish Civil War catalyzed a distinctive intellectual movement among Britain's interwar right—the Conservative Revolutionaries. This thesis explores how this conflict provided ideological coherence to figures like Arnold Lunn, Arthur Bryant, and Douglas Jerrold, who occupied a unique position between conventional conservatism and fascism. Through organizations such as the Friends of Nationalist Spain, these intellectuals translated their abstract critiques of liberalism, democracy, and industrial capitalism into concrete political action. The thesis demonstrates that these figures were neither simple conservatives nor card-carrying fascists, but proponents of a third way between the two. This study challenges the conventional narrative that portrays British politics as immune to radical right-wing currents that swept continental Europe, complicates our understanding of the relationship between conservatism and fascism in Britain, and illuminates the diverse responses to the perceived crisis of liberal democracy and capitalism during the interwar period.