Fascism and Big Business [Paperback]

Daniel Guerin (Author), Francis Merrill (Author), Mason Merrill (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1994

Examines the development of fascism in Germany and Italy and its relationship with the ruling capitalist families there.

Product Details

• Paperback: 318 pages
• Publisher: Pathfinder Pr; 2nd edition (February 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0873488784
• ISBN-13: 978-0873488785
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,282,765 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A CLASSIC ON THE REAL TIES BETWEEN FASCISM AND BIG BUSINESS, December 28, 1999

By 

Johan Nilsson (Stockholm, Sweden) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fascism and Big Business (Hardcover)

A comprehensive study of fascism as it evolved in Italy and Germany in the 1920s and 1930s.

Daniel Guerin's classic work, first published in French in 1936, shows how fascism, far from being an aberration of mass psychology, arose from the specific conditions of a social system in crisis. At first covertly, then increasingly openly, layers of big business financed and promoted the fascist movements in Italy and Germany.

Guerin contrasts the fascists' initially radical anticapitalist demagogy with their moves to shore up the capitalist profit system once they form the government.

"The profound causes that drove the Italian and German industrialists to bring fascism to power may produce the same effects elsewhere," Guerin concludes. (from the back cover)

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential Titiles on Fascism, March 2, 2011

By 

Marc J. Lichtman (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fascism and Big Business (Paperback)

In his preface to the 1965 French edition (included in this edition) Guerin wrote: "In this immense comparison I was undertaking, the writings of Leon Trotsky on Germany and France served as a guide." Trotsky's main writings on Germany are collected in the book "The Struggle against Fascism in Germany," and on France in "Leon Trotsky on France." They are also must reading. But Trotsky's concept of fascism was worked out in the course of trying to mobilize the working class against it. Guerin took Trotsky's basic ideas and researched them further. The Struggle against Fascism in Germany (Merit)Leon Trotsky on France

Today fascism is mostly used as an epithet, or in conjuction with talking about the death of 6 million Jews (a few also know that a half million Rom [Gypsies] were also killed, roughly proportionate to the 6 million Jews). But anti-Semitism was not even part of the ideology of fascism in Italy. The rounding up of Italian Jews only took place after German troops came in to fortify Mussolini's weak position, and Hitler forced the issue. This book compares fascism in Italy and Germany--what was the same, what was different. It explains what social classes supported fascism, and why. Fascism is a mass reactionary movement, financed by big business (especially heavy industry), but based on declassed plebeians and the ruined middle classes. Only the working class has the ability to stop it, and only by understanding this can we ensure that it doesn't happen again.

Another book that is essential to understanding anti-Semitism, which was a key ingredient of German fascism, is "The Jewish Question; A Marxist Interpretation," by Abram Leon, who managed to complete the work in occupied Belgium, before being caught and sent to die in Auschwitz.The Jewish Question: A Marxist Interpretation