Customer Reviews

Fascism: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"Fascism has an enigmatic countenance because in it appears the most counterpoised contents. It asserts authoritarianism and organises rebellion. It fights against contemporary democracy and, on the other hand, does not believe in the restoration of any past rule. It seems to pose itself as the forge of a strong State, and uses means most conducive to its dissolution, as if it were a destructive faction or a secret society. Whichever way we approach fascism we find that it is simultaneously on thing and the contrary, it is A and not A."
Passmore's book takes the tone of this passage and writes his book re-affirming the above. He seems to masterfully handle all the problems and hazards of his study able to articulate a concept of fascism that makes room for both its modernity and anti-modernity. Not just an historical survey, it is also a presentation of common elements of a widespread ideology. This book is as fascinating as it is eye-opening. Very well-written.

When one considers the ideology of fascism many notions and images spring to mind: totalitarianism, nationalism, ultranationalism, racism, oppression, censorship, violence, Nazism, Para militarism, right wing conservatism, radicalism, eugenics and the Holocaust. As Kevin Passmore suggests, Fascism is all these things and not these things, as it has a mercurial nature. In fact, "...fascism, as Ortega y Gasset says, is always `A' and not `A'." (p.11)

Passmore devotes most of this text to the inter-war years where fascism manifested in its most blatant forms. Although Mussolini and Hitler have been labelled or are the most famous fascists in modern history, their brand of fascism, however, and how they developed, are quite different. For the most part, fascism is multi-layered and complex, as it attracts all genders, and people from all classes and political sensibilities. To define this elusive term, the author has attempted to reveal the specific historical context in which fascism, in its various forms, raised its head - and from these studies, similarities can be made.

What are the common denominators inclusive to fascism? According to Passmore, its central purpose is national unity. However it is a national unity in the way "they" define it. He goes on to write that all "isms", that is to say, feminism, socialism, communism, capitalism etc., particularly for the ultranationalism form of fascism, are rejected wholesale, as the entire nation must conform to the one ideal. Most common to fascism is the desire to rid their particular country of all foreigners, to ensure all aspects of social and economic life are controlled. Immigration is stopped totally and immigrants are either persuaded to leave the country or, in the case of the Nazis, exterminated. Moreover, Passmore believes that Fascist social policy, for example, "...is consciously shaped by ultranationalism, political discrimination, and racism." (p. 150)

Fascism today, Passmore suggests, continues to exist in its many forms across the globe, however, these political parties choose not to call themselves fascist as the term has too many negative connotations. The author prefers to call the new fascists, "national-populism", as they are essentially the rise of the extreme right, included in such countries as France, Denmark, Austria and the United States. In France, the far-right party, the French National Front, focuses on the "foreign elements" and the advance of socialism, feminism and immigration. Whereas in the United States, nation populism has manifested in the form of "militias", white supremacist who are radically against government regulation or intervention of any kind.

Although a brief overview of fascism and its whys and hows, for the most part, it is clearly written, easily understood despite its complex subject matter, and a text that makes the reader want to investigate further.

Fascism is one of the more complex political movements of the past century and one of the more difficult to satisfyingly define. Philosophers sometimes seek the necessary and sufficient conditions for defining some term or concept. The problem with fascism is that while there are a number of necessary conditions, they are not in themselves sufficient in designating a movement as fascist. Fascism is always ultranationalistic, racist, and anti-liberal, but these are features it holds in common with a host of other right wing political movements. In the end, identifying a movement as fascist is more of an art than a science, akin to the famous definition of obscenity by U. S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart: "I know it when I see it." Kevin Passmore's fine book can help one know it when one sees a fascist movement.

It is important to understand this movement for a host of reasons, many of them historical but some of them contemporary. For instance, calling someone a fascist has become a commonplace of contemporary political vituperation. In the 2004 election I heard a number of people call Bush a fascist, and while he holds a few positions in common with fascism, they are in the end very few and the differences significant. Less understandably, I heard more than one right wing commentator call Kerry a fascist, which is beyond comprehension, since he does not espouse a single position that connects with what we understand as fascism. So we really do need to understand what it means when we properly identify someone as a fascist. Passmore's approach is primarily to discuss a host of national situations from a historical perspective that were at the time either self-identified as fascist or, in the wake of WW II and the utter discreditation of fascism, that share a significant number of features with pre-WW II fascism. Obviously this approach means discussing Italian and German fascism, but Passmore also spends a good amount of time on nations that will be unfamiliar to all but serious students of Eastern Europe, such as Romania.

The picture that gradually emerges of fascism is of a movement that is anti-modern, rascist, masculine and anti-feminist, corporatist, rabidly nationalistic, rural rather than urban, largely undemocratic, leans towards a dictatorship, tends to be anti-free market and at the same time anti-trade union, and paramilitary in nature. What can be bewildering is that not every incarnation of fascism can be characterized by all of these features. This is less true of pre-WW II fascism than post-war, when movements that are largely fascist have been forced to espouse democratic principles and even claim not to be racist. In the end, what one gains is not a crystal clear of what is or is not fascism, but a general impression of what might count as a fascist movement.

This is not a well-written book, which is the only complaint I would like to make about it. The structure is awkward and one chapter does not naturally flow into one another. There seems to be little rhyme or reason why one bit of the subject is dealt with in one part of the book and not another. Furthermore, Passmore never really states clearly what he sees as lying at the heart of fascism. I managed to figure out what he meant by typing out various identifying characteristics as I read through the text, but unless one undertakes some such exercise, one could end the book a bit confused about the whole matter. Had the book been more clearly structured, it would be a far more valuable introduction to the subject. In the end, one does get a good sense about fascism, but only if one is willing to work hard towards that end. The author doesn't help the reader as much as he might have. Nonetheless, I strongly recommend this book. Although we are unlikely to see the kind of fascist movements that we saw in the interwar years, it represents tendencies in political thinking that have never really disappeared and persist even today. We need to be sensitive to these tendencies and prepared to deal with them in the future.

This is the first book on Fascism that I have read so far. I was curious about Fascism because it was the prevailing political and economic system in both Germany and Italy at the beginning of World War 2 and that war is one of my favorite reading subjects.

I found the book readable, detailed and, very clear. The book carries a lot of information for being only an introduction to Fascism. You will find out that Fascism is a broad term that, nonetheless, did not fully describe any system defined as such (fascist) in any of the countries where it is recognized that it took hold. Fascism is related to many concepts such as: corporatism, ultra nationalism, paramilitarism, anti-feminism, racism (or at least xenophobia), autarky, totalitarianism, rule by terror, messianic message, tight control of unions and labour, presence of both radical and conservative social and economic measures, cult of personality (of a strong, supreme leader), and bent on welfare and total employment for the "true" nationals. Sometimes it bordered on Paganism (as in Nazi Germany) and sometimes it was firmly bound to a religion (Catholicism in Franco's Spain and the Christian Orthodox Church in Romania).

The author also presents an outlook of the current political movements throughout Europe (mostly) that could be termed fascist like. This is indeed a thorough introduction to Fascism. Five stars for this book.

There are those who are fans of the long book (C.S. Lewis was one). I'm a fan of the short book. These books are short. They're also small: they fit in your pocket. But they're also illustrated, and since the print is a bit smaller than the usual 10 or 12 point font, you really get a rather larger book. I'm quite excited about the whole series, because I like nothing better than delving into a small book (and am a fan of the essay for that reason). But, of course, as all the books are by different authors and on different subjects, as with say, the Everyman Books series, each must be considered on its own.

This one, to my mind, is particularly good, and not nearly so limited as the title might suggest. It doesn't get bogged down in endless squabbles as to what the definition of "fascism" might be, but rather delves right into history. That history, as most people have at least a vague idea, has to do with the causes and effects of the first world war, as well as the second, the Third Reich in Germany, as well as the Weimar republic (sp.), Hitler's early persecution of Catholics, Jews, Communists and Socialists long before he was established as a leader in Germany, the Soviet encouragement of pogroms against the Jews, Mussolini's shift from a socialist to a fascist (such as it was), Henry VIII's seizure of the Catholic Church to create the Church of England, and a great deal more (more on this last in Empire: A Very Short Introduction). If any of that excites even a passing interest, here's a book that puts faces to the names and tells the stories behind the storefronts.
In the age of soundbites, film clips and biopics, this series may well bring back the pleasure of reading, and especially the pleasure of reading non-fiction, and of, dare I say it, getting smarter. Having not read all of the series, which is increasing at a prolific rate, I nevertheless can highly recommend this one.

The term "fascism" gets tossed around a lot. Passmore helps distinguish between groups with fascist elements (a sizable group) and "dyed-in-the-wool" fascists (few and far between, especially nowadays). This book would serve as a good primer to help enlighten discussion of comparative politics. Also, anyone engaging in political discourse would be well-served to use this text as a guidepost before hurling "fascist" accusations at commentators from the conservative side of the political spectrum.

......and I think it is carrying a bundle of rods with an axe in the middle.


Oh, this guy is good. Now he has some weird quirks in his writing. He contradicts himself, has some flawed statements and weirdly connects the feminine and racial issues on an elementary level. Some jargon in this book is also incomprehensible. And, I bet $100 this guys a romanticist (far above his other personality levelers of realist and classicist creativity stabilizers - the three are balanced out in one way or another) - like for example Jean-Jacque Rousseau. I must also highly disagree with Steven Tooley (below) .... However, that of course is my opinion.

All right, all the above does not matter. ALL the time that I see crap like this, I automatically throw it out. Nevertheless, this guy comes up with some incredible insights and very original outlook and reasoning beyond even the above average humanities writer (he is a history lecturer at Cardiff - with some good horse sense of politics and philosophy). He also injects parts of history that other authors have not made of certain unique connections. He has totally analyzed this subject - Fascism - and gives you different and in-depth angles to look through. He takes you a cross "paths" that have never been crossed before.

Read this with tongue-in-check mentality. You can easily see and discard this nonsense. There is highly valuable information here. This person has made a (small) book of only 158 pages, but he jams it full of Great information on Fascism. I would have sworn, after reading this, that I had just finished a large book. There is no real filler here (except for the quirks mentioned above).

Oxford Press does it again - but the other "very short introductions" series are not as high of caliber as this is.

These three books will give you THE best insight on Fascism. No others come close to the brilliance of the material.


1) Fascism by Roger Griffin (edited by Roger Griffin) This is the best book on Fascism. There is no better way to truly understand something unless to go to the SOURCE(S).
2) Fascism A Very Short Introduction by Kevin Passmore
3) The Nature of Fascism edited by S.J. Woolf (NOT the book by R. Griffin on the same title)

In conclusion, Oxford University Press (UK) and the University of Chicago (USA) crank out some great books on political philosophy etc. Although, some of them are out of print. Alibris will get them for ya!

As the title promises, this is not a long book, but be aware that it is dense. The author holds the reasonable view along the lines of "fascism is a contradictory set of interrelated and contested ideologies and practices" and thereby states that simple definitions of fascism would be misleading. While he does have a definition page, he explains the many forms of fascism and analyses these along themes, such as race, gender and class,and as it has manifested in many coutries throughout the book. I find this approach sound and convincing, particularly as the author pulls no punches in examining coutries less renowned for past fascist leanings. While expert on fascism's history and exponents, the author is generally condemning with statements such as: "the science of fascism is little more than bigotry erected into a system".

The eclectic approach of the author certainly suits this subject but it does make the book hard work. I accidentally opened the book a hundred odd pages further than I had read and, because of the paragraph by paragraph development of arguments, read for a minute before becoming aware of my error. "Syndicalism" is a term I had not remembered encountering but could interpret after several appearances - it was eventually defined more or less along the lines of my expectations on page 142 but not referenced there in the index. These issues are not necessarily problems and perhaps are to be expected in an essay style of presentation. The author's analysis remains logical and the themes he chooses are perennial and generally aid comprehension.

I purchased this book because I wondered about the emergence of some elements of fascism in global society and in particular in the society in which I live (please note that I now know that to only take some elements of fascism probably means that it is a different `ism' anyway). This is a thorough introduction to help develop insights and, more importantly, draw connections with historical examples that may help show where contemporary behaviour may take us if unchecked.

Kevin Passmore has pulled it off once again. I have read most of his books and enjoyed all I've read. I own 19 of the "Short Introduction," books, and I can say confidently that this is by far the best. This book takes the topic of fascism and looks at it with a whole new perspective. In my opinion, Passmore's data and opinions are equally balanced, which is very effective. It is correct to call the Nazi party fascist, as many of their belifes and plans were simply fascist.

If you are interested in researching Fascism this is without a doubt the book to buy.

Let me save you some cash, time, and loads of frustration at piss-poor logic.

Everything this book has to say can be summed up as: Ideas I don't like + matching outfits = fascism.


I couldn't even finish this tripe. Like 90 percent of the "intellectuals" (we still call them that even if they have no intellect, right?) who write on Fascism, this guy hasn't a clue.

Basically, he knows fascism is something he doesn't like...but beyond that things get hazy...so eventually EVERYTHING he doesn't like becomes some display, premotion, or resurgence of fascism. Yet another bout of "Fascism is evil. Evil, evil, evil. Got it?" Tip to all these authors...EVERYONE ALREADY HATES FASCISM. It's been demonized for over half a century.

We. Got. The. Hint.

Now, how about an honest analysis of it for a change. That way we can see it when it raises it's head in the future.