What is fascism? Is it revolutionary? Or is it reactionary? This book argues that it is both: fascism
unleashes violence against the left and ethnic minorities, but also condemns the bourgeoisie for its
"softness". Kevin Passmore opens his book with a series of "scenes from fascist life"--a secret meeting
of the Romanian Iron Guard; Mussolini meeting the king of Italy; a rally of Hungarian doctors calling
for restrictions on the number of Jews entering the profession. He then looks at the paradoxes of fascism
through its origins in the political and social crisis of the late nineteenth century, the history of
fascist movements and regimes in Italy and Germany, and the fortunes of "failed" fascist movements in
Romania, Hungary and Spain. He shows how fascism employs propaganda and popular culture to propagate
itself and how it exported its ideas outside Europe, through Nazi and Spanish post-war escape routes to
Latin America. The book concludes with a discussion of the recent revival of the extreme right in Austria,
Italy, France, and Russia.

Download File Size:3.08 MB

---