Fascism

Fascism is a political ideology of the far right that seeks national unity through patriotism, collectivism and opposition to liberalism. Fascism generally sees the individual as subservient to the group. The prototypical fascist state is usually seen as the Italy of Benito Mussolini, and fascism is also thought of as an important undercurrent in Hitler's Germany under National Socialism.

Fascism as a movement tends to be a populist movement, which exists in a symbiotic relationship with the party - in Germany, this included the Hitler Youth and frequent marches. Fascism tends to play to a feeling of crisis and group victimhood (usually racial and nationalistic), blaming another group for social problems.

Fascism and fascist are also often used as a pejorative name for people. This was lucidly described by George Orwell in What is Fascism?, where he described how it was used to describe a huge swathe of political ideologies and positions and is thus it has been rendered fairly meaningless.

Bibliography

• Blamires, Cyprian. World Fascism: A Historical Encyclopedia (2 vol. 2006)
• De Grand, Alexander. Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. The Fascist "Style" of Rule, (1995),
• Eatwell, Roger. Fascism. A History, (1995)
• Griffin, Roger. The Nature of Fascism, (1993) excerpt and text search
• Kershaw, Ian. The Nazi Dictatorship. Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation, (3rd edn, 1993)
• Knox, MacGregor. Common Destiny. Dictatorship, Foreign Policy, and War in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, (2000)
• Laqueur, Walter, ed. Fascism. A Reader's Guide: Analyses, Interpretations, Bibliography, (1979)
• Morgan, Philip. Fascism in Europe, 1919-1945. (2002) online edition
• Payne, Stanley. A History of Fascism, 1914-1945, (1995)
• Paxton, Robert O. The Anatomy of Fascism (2005)

Primary sources

• Griffin, Roger, ed. Fascism, (1995) excerpt and text search

See also

• National Socialism