Summary
Title: The Anatomy of Fascism
Author: Robert O. Paxton
Publisher: Knopf
ISBN: 1400040949
Pro:
• Engaging writing from a noted expert on the subject
Con:
• None
Description:
• Analysis of the nature and history of fascism
• Explains how fascism has appeared in different forms in different cultures
Book Review
Robert O. Paxton has been thinking and teaching about fascism for many years, but he found that most of the material available on fascist movements were monographs which focused on specific aspects of particular examples of fascist governments — the courts in Nazi Germany, for example. Books dealing with fascism in general were few and those that existed weren’t very good, in his opinion, so he set out to write something new.
The Anatomy of Fascism is the result of Paxton’s many years of thinking about the problem of fascism and his attempt to explain just what fascism is — and is not. True to his years as a teacher, Paxton’s book is free from technical jargon and dense academic language that would drive the average reader to distraction. Most people should be able to pick up this book and learn something valuable, even if they don’t have much experience with reading about politics and political philosophy. One thing that helps is that rather than starting with and focusing on theory, Paxton brings forth many important visual images that have helped define fascism through the 20th century.
Fascism was, after all, never very intellectual or philosophical; although some fascists did try to create theories to explain what they believed and why, these were inevitably post hoc rationalizations and very thin. The fascist appeal to the masses was never based upon attractive theories or even a history of success in government. Instead, the appeal of fascism was always raw, emotional, visceral, and even aesthetic. Capturing the essence of fascism thus requires an engagement with those images, slogans, and experiences which helped inspire the emotional force that constituted fascist politics.
So, what is fascism? No single definition can do the problem justice, but Paxton does come up with something very useful. Fascism is:
- ‘‘A form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.’’
Like many, Paxton is concerned about the possibility of fascism appearing again. Most people associate fascism with very specific historical examples of the type, such as Hitler’s Germany and Mussolini’s Italy, and in part because of this they imagine that “it couldn’t happen here.” It’s true that Nazism and Swastikas won’t become dominant in America, but that’s not how fascism would occur here in any case. Instead, American fascism would appear in the guise of traditional American symbols, ideas, and slogans. American fascism would draw upon the raw emotional ingredients already at works in American politics, feeding off of native hatred, prejudices, and fears.
Avoiding future fascism should be one of the reasons for learning more about past fascisms, but this is made difficult by the fact that fascism is a product of diverse circumstances, not all of which will even be easily identifiable, much less solvable. That’s no reason not to try, though, and Paxton’s book should give people some of the basic tools necessary to remain aware of what’s going on around them and perhaps identify potential dangers before they become a real threat.
