Aron Brouwer

Aron Brouwer MA is a PhD student focusing on the history and practices of transnational fascism and anti-fascist activism. He received his B.A. and Research M.A. in History from the University of Amsterdam. Aron's research interests include Interwar Europe, East Asian history, economic history, book history and translation studies. At the University of Amsterdam, he published articles and chapters on the Armenian genocide (2014), new approaches in Digital Humanities (2014), Adolf Hitler (2014) and French Intellectual History (2016). His B.A. thesis on the ideological foundations of Hitler's worldview received the National Bachelor Thesis Award as the best historical B.A. thesis in the Netherlands in 2015. Aron co-authored a popular historical biography on William of Orange (2017) and his  M.A. thesis, entitled Translating Hitler. Towards a Global Translation History of Mein Kampf, 1925-1945 (2019), compared all Chinese, Dutch, English, French and Italian translations of Hitler's book and argued that all these texts were ideologically repacked and rhetorically reframed by the decision-makers involved.

At Penn, Aron published on transnational fascism and anti-fascist activism in Interwar France (2019) and a new conceptual framework to understand fascist transnationalism (2022). His dissertation project examines what happens when politically sensitive texts become the subject of translation and the focus of ideological control.

Advisors: Prof. Warren Breckman & Prof. Roger Chartier

Research Interests

Global intellectual history; Interwar Europe; modern East Asian history; Early-modern Dutch history; book history; cultural history; economic history; fascism and anti-fascism; nationalism; translation studies.

Selected Publications
  • Aron Brouwer, 'The Pan-Fascist Paradox: How Does a Nationalist-Minded Fascist Think Transnationally?,' in: Fascism, 11:1 (2022), pp. 1-30. 
  • Aron Brouwer, ‘Every Frenchman Must Read This Book’: The Impact of Politics and Ideology on the Production, Translation and Dissemination of Hitler’s Mein Kampf in France, 1933-1939', in: Quaerendo 49:3 (Leiden/Boston 2019), pp. 195-227.
  • Aron Brouwer & Marthijn Wouters, Willem van Oranje. De Opportunistische Vader des Vaderlands (Amsterdam 2017).
  • Aron Brouwer, 'De psychologie van de domme massa. Gustave Le Bon als Adolf Hitlers voornaamste leermeester', in: Skript 38:1 (Amsterdam 2016), pp. 18-29.
  • Aron Brouwer, 'De ondergang der "paapse afgodendienst" in Holland De invloed van Willem van Oranje op het religieuze karakter van de Hollandse steden' in: Historische Debuten (Amsterdam 2015), pp. 9-23.
  • Aron Brouwer, 'Het hulpeloze Hajastan Hoe Nederland-Gidsland de Armeniërs liet verdwalen, 1915-1928', in: Skript 36:2 (Amsterdam 2014), pp. 111-123.
  • Willem Melching & Aron Brouwer, ‘De onvermijdelijke oorlog. Hitlers Mein Kampf als schakel tussen twee wereldoorlogen’, in: Frits Boterman, Willem Melching & Arnold Labrie (eds.), Na de catastrofe: de Eerste Wereldoorlog en de zoektocht naar een nieuw Europa (Amsterdam, 2014), pp. 33-51.
  • Aron Brouwer, Rens Bod & Corina Koolen, 'Translators’ influences on Hitler's Mein Kampf', in: Digital Humanities in the Benelux 2014 (The Hague, 2014).