| Keywords: fascism, Nazism Title: Fascism : A History Author/Artist: Roger Eatwell Publisher: Vintage Media: Book Reviewer: Pan |
Fascism is on the move once more, even if its moat sophisticated forms have had to learn to dress to suit the times…Never has the study of fascism - through all its history - been so timely.These are the closing words of Roger Eatwell's Fascism : A History, first published in 1996 but still available. The intervening years have done nothing to disprove his prescient words, if anything the advance of fascism has quickened pace in the opening years of this new century. Eatwell looks at the history of fascism in Italy, Germany, France and Britain. Unlike many similar surveys it does not end with the close of the Second World War. The book looks at post-war fascism in those same four countries, marking out areas of continuity and difference between them, while at the same time relating pre- and post-war experiences. The competing ideological strands within the different fascisms are examined in some detail, and he is careful to credit the submerged leftist trend within those movements described as fascist or neo-fascist. However, while ideological factors are important, it is also made clear that these alone do not account for successes or failures, past, present or future. It is a great strength of this book that it is not simply a look back at history, there is also a clear concern with what is going on now and a fear for the future. Understanding the nature of fascism is essential to those who wish to fight it. Those content to simply parrot slogans about Nazis have missed the point - fascism has moved on, it is the conservative left who are mired in the past. Roger Eatwell makes the point most clearly; his is a book that is definitely recommended.