An immensely learned consideration of "the major political
innovation of the twentieth century, and the source of much of its
pain." The folks at MoveOn.org notwithstanding, George Bush is no
Hitler, John Ashcroft likely no fascist. The looseness of terms and
equations disguises the complexity of the deadly far-right
ideology, which Paxton (Emeritus, Social Sciences/Columbia Univ.;
Europe in the Twentieth Century, not reviewed, etc.) defines, quite
comprehensively, as "a form of political behavior marked by
obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or
victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity,
in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants,
working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional
elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive
violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal
cleansing and external expansion." A mouthful, but Paxton ably
demonstrates why precision is wanted here, having spent the
preceding chapters analyzing the many brands of fascism on the
world stage. The best known, of course, is the first: Mussolini's
pompous, theatrical regime, which came to power a full decade
before Hitler's; as Paxton writes, Mussolini coined the term
fascismo and set the tone for many a dictatorship to come. These
allied but subtly different fascisms shared a radicalism that
belied their socialist origins, which has caused some historians to
regard fascism as anticapitalist at heart. Not so, Paxton argues:
Fascism was at once a revolt against the left and against liberal
individualism and a slap in the face of old-school, elitist
conservatism, whose exponents "wanted obedience and deference, not
dangerous popular mobilization" of the sort that working-class
fascism drew on. But, all the same, it was a very willing crony of
big business, which was quite happy with the anti-leftist "new man"
that once threatened to rule the world. A solid contribution to
political literature, and of much interest to students of
20th-century history. (Kirkus Reviews)
Fascism was the major political invention of the twentieth century
and the source of much of its pain. How can we try to comprehend
its allure and its horror? Is it a philosophy, a movement, an
aesthetic experience? What makes states and nations become fascist?
Acclaimed historian Robert O. Paxton shows that in order to
understand fascism we must look at it in action - at what it did,
as much as what it said it was about. He explores its falsehoods
and common threads; the social and political base that allowed it
to prosper; its leaders and internal struggles; how it manifested
itself differently in each country - France, Britain, the low
countries, Eastern Europe, even Latin America as well as Italy and
Germany; how fascists viewed the Holocaust; and, finally, whether
fascism is still possible in today's world. Offering a bold new
interpretation of the fascist phenomenon, this groundbreaking book
will overturn our understanding of twentieth-century history.
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