When in 1929 Walter Lippmann assessed the likelihood of fascism spreading to Western countries, he categorically ruled out its reaching Germany. In his view, modern industrial societies were too complex and contained too many diverse interests to be subsumed into one fascist direction. A few years later, when the Nazis did come to power in Germany, many observers were surprised at how easily Germans gave up their recently won civil liberties for the sake of national interests. Like Lippmann before them, these observers had underestimated the power of nationalism.
