Volume 30, Number 3 · March 3, 1983
What Was Fascism?
By István Deák
Who Were the Fascists: Social Roots of European Fascism
edited by Stein Ugelvik Larsen, edited by Bernt Hagtvet, edited by Jan Petter Myklebust
Universitetsforlaget (Oslo), distributed by Columbia University Press, 816 pp., $48.00
Who Voted for Hitler?
by Richard F. Hamilton
Princeton University Press, 664 pp., $16.50 (paper)
Perhaps one day someone will formulate a universally acceptable definition of fascism and will clearly identify the fascists, but that day still seems far off. Who Were the Fascists, edited by Stein Ugelvik Larsen and others and containing contributions by some of the world's foremost specialists on fascism, shows—if it still needs to be demonstrated—that fascism was not a monolith. But Larsen and his colleagues also show that a few characteristics were shared by the many varieties of fascism and that we can speak of typically fascist tendencies. Moreover, even if we are unable to tell precisely who the fascists were, we can state with some confidence who was not a fascist. To do the latter, we must rid ourselves, at last, of the communist-inspired habit of characterizing as a fascist anyone who is to our right and, occasionally, even to the far left.
Review, 2763 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |