Customer Reviews

Fascism: Past, Present, Future

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Walter Laquer was for 25 years the director of the Institute of Contemporary History and the Weiner Library in London, one of the world's leading institutes for the study of fascism. Between 1976 and 1988 he was a Professor of History at Georgetown University and is currently a visiting professor of History serving at a variety of prestigious universities such as Harvard and John Hopkins. Considering this background the reader would expect a good overview of the topic. Does the author fulfill expectations? The answer is an unequivacal no.

One major problem with the book is that the author does not thoroughly define the term fascism. This is an essential first step in the writing of such a book, especially considering how amorphous the term is. This should have been done in a prelude chapter or, at the very latest, in the first chapter of the book. The author only provides a few characteristics of fascism (i.e., Social Darwinism, racial theory, the emphasis and need for violence, etc.) towards the middle of the book but, unfortunately, the discussion regarding these are quite cursory. Each of these characteristics needs to be examined in detail per se as well as their relationship to each other and relative importance to the ideology. The book does not perform this function.

Another major fault with the book is that it does not examine the issue of causality. Under what conditions can fascism regimes take roots under? Lacquer mentions the lack of democratic institutions and serious economic conditions that undermine the center but he misses factors such as the very violent episodes of history precluding the rise of fascism in Italy and Germany, for example. The mentality resulting from intense combat and casualties of the First World War on combat veterans was that violence became acceptable in the political arena. This played a very important role in the overthrow of the established orders in Italy and Germany, one that Lacquer does not even mention.

Yet a third major defect of the book is the fact that it drifts off on tangents that are not central or critical to fascism. In a lengthy book this would not prove to be such an issue but in a short book such as Lacquer's (about 160 pages) it is a problem. In the approximately 50 page chapter on present day fascism, for example, he spends almost a third of the chapter on the skin-head movement and holocaust denial. Considering that neither is central or even critical to present-day fascist movements or their ability to come to power (if anything quite the reverse) this is a considerable waste of time. These movements, in the larger context of things, seem little more than social phenomena of little consequence to fascism.

In the book's concluding chapter, on the future of fascism, Lacquer states that if fascist regimes come to power in the future they will not have the form they had in the past. Unfortunately, considering the lack of a solid definition of the term in the book, combined with an almost non-existent discussion of causality, it becomes impossible to determine (at least based on the book) what forms they will have. This makes the book, to a very large degree, meaningless.

For a better overview of the subject, albeit in lengthier books, this reviewer recommends Roger Griffin's Oxford Reader on Fascism and Paxton's Anatomy of Fascism. Both provide a superior definition of the concept, its characteristics and causality.

The primary problem with this book is that it attempts to look at several absolutely massive topics in under 300 pages; it just can't be done, not well anyway. Laquer breaks the book into three very broad topics: fascism, neofacism, and postfacism. A doctoral dissertation could be written on all three of these topics, but Laquer attempts to look at them in about 90 pages a piece.

The first section looks at "historical fascism": German Nazism and Italian fascism. Once again these are both complex doctrines that naturally require a lot of space to expand upon if any detail is to be given at all. Laquer forgoes detail and opts for a broad overview; not necessarily a bad thing but it was poorly executed in this instance. Very little time is spent look at the theoretical details of fascism. There are some exerts from "Mein Kamf" and Mussolini is quoted at length as well, but the reader leaves with only a partial grasp of what the actual doctrines were; in fact at times Laquer Makes Mussolini look like a man that largely improvised both theory and action; quite inaccurate if one reads the actual Doctrine of Fascism. What is valuable are the subchapters of the first section that looks at important concepts or groups (the workers, peasants, terror, propaganda, religion, etc,) relative to the regimes. Some scarcely known facts are offered here.

The next two sections of the book are mostly dry and not as informative as one would expect from a man of Laqruer's stature. Most of the information on skinheads and ultra-nationalist parties can be found by watching CNN and the BBC. Laquer does not take it a step further and examine these entities with an analytical eye, he just anecdotally examines the development of what could loosely be called neo or post fascism.

In the end the book is a major disappointment. It certainly is not a scholarly piece of work; it only has two pages of citations with just one citation for the entire first section on historical fascism! There are also several pages of unorganized "biographical notes", which are largely unhelpful. I guess you will have to take Laquer's word for it because you have very few ways of confirming his research. To top it off his prose are a bit off-putting, making for a slow drudging read even for someone, like myself, who is very interested in the topic. It would have served Laquer better to narrow his focus and expand his citations.

Walter Laqueur provides one of the most concise overviews of Fascism in it is various stages. The book is divided into three pieces with the first covering the historical aspects of Fascism from the 1930's with Hitler and Mussolini. The present in the second half covers the post world war II era through the 1990's and the way that neofacist and skinhead movements changed fascism face. Finally the last part covers the evolution of fascism in post soviet republics and Middle Eastern countries. My one major complaint of the book is that it tends to focus far more on Nazi Germany and leaves out Italy's contribution to the ideology of Fascism. While the book tries to do a lot in a very short number of pages it tends to focus on Nazi Germany and then expand on the Nazi contributions to the present and fascist era. To be certain it mentions Italy many times but never really assesses Mussolini's fascism. Overall though this is an excellent overview of fascism and very well written for those interested in either a historical or a philosophical case study of this ideology.

The author presents what appears to be a reasonably unbiased overview of the fascism of the 1920's and 30's, neither ignoring nor overstating its similarities with Communism. Unfortunately, although in his introduction he makes much of the inadequacy of labels like Right, Left and neo-fascist, when it comes to fascism present and future, he forgets his caveats, loses his objectivity, and labels as Extreme Right every element he wishes to consider a successor of fascism past; even though most nationalist groups today are defensive and conservative, only wishing to preserve their own cultures and way of life from the onslaught of globalism, a far cry from the crusading radicalism and totalitarianism of true fascism - as, to his credit, the author admits. His "liberal" and "democratic" bias is however all too obvious here; it blinds him to those present-day fascists who are on the political left or within the ranks of the "liberals" themselves. The new fascist threat, which the author fails to mention, comes not from the powerless "neo-fascists", but from the corporativist establishment that already holds the reins of power. Because they are not nationalist, in the old sense, it is easy to gloss over or obscure the fascist nature of their ideology; despite the author's protestations, fascism is not nationalism, and an international or global fascism is no less compatible with its core beliefs.

As others have noted, Laqueur's style compresses so much into less than 250 pp. of text that it left me a bit confused. He knows so much that he writes this book with very few footnotes or quotations. But what's off the top of his head may go over yours: that is, he often throws out surnames of titles of parties and refers to movements and events that, for newcomers, need more context than he provides in the text. Sometimes, explanations are given later, frequently not.

The best portions are in the introduction--which shows how indefinable fascism is, in the lack of a Manifesto or a "Fascintern"--although much later, on p. 90, he gives a "fascist minimum." Other bits are worthwhile--for me, the skinhead vs. fascist and far-right vs. fascism comparisons; the reminder that the term is overused and misunderstood by the Left; clerical fascism explained and its role in "political religion" in the misinterpretations known as radical Islam; why Soviets taught their people so little about the Nazis--too similar?; the megalomaniacal plans for world domination from Zhironovsky in early 90's Russia out of an Ian Fleming thriller or a Marvel Comics villain.

It taught me a lot, and as it anticipates the abuses of ideology across much of the world just before 9/11, remains relevant. Laqueur's study packs a lot into a few pages. It's just that he forgets that we all aren't as smart as he is. Probably better suited for those who know European politics already and want to delve deeper. It did show me that much of the threat in the West from the newer movements has been as overblown as perhaps that from the Middle East had been--at the time of writing in 1998--overlooked.