Mara's review
Liberal Fascism: The Totalitarian Temptation from Mussolini to Hillary Clinton
by Jonah Goldberg
Mara's review
Liberal Fascism: The Totalitarian Temptation from Mussolini to Hillary Clinton by Jonah Goldberg
Mara's review
bookshelves:
to-read
The cover and title of the book are flagrantly controversial, but as they say about books and covers, this one should be judged only after reading it, which is what I plan to do. The title is actually from H.G. Wells who coined the term "liberal fascism" or "friendly fascism" to mean a statist utopian enterprise designed to lift everyone collectively to a better life, but as Jonah Goldberg, the author, points out, "Even a hug can be a problem if you don't want to be hugged." The goal of the book is to revisit and cleanly define the word "fascism" at its roots before Nazism simply turned the term into a synonym for "evil" and give warning to any statist or nationalistic urge to herd people into a unified whole, even if you think it's for their own good. Democracy is messy, but, Goldberg sets out to show, it accords us one freedom that utopia can't: the right to dissent. I'm interested to see if he accomplishes his goal.
