Fascism an Anthology

by Nathanael Greene

(from the back cover):To comprehend fully the forces that led Europe into the Second World War, the student of contemporary history must understand the origins, development, and ideologies of the fascist movement. This volume, which is intended for use in all courses that cover twentieth-century European history, attempts to foster this understanding by acquainting students with key sections from the major secondary sources on Fascism. In making his selections, the editor has chosen those excerpts that best reflect the most important interpretations of the fascist movement as it was manifested in Italy, Germany, Spain, and France. In introductions to the sections, Mr. Greene analyzes the important lines of interpretation developed in each of the sources and provides the volume with historical continuity.

Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

At the time this was published, in 1968, it was intended as an introduction for undergraduates and beginning graduate students to the state of political science studies of fascism. It presumably served that function adequately at the time. It consists of short, readable selections from primary and secondary sources on some of the more well-known exemplars of fascism, and provides some context in terms of discussing “generic” or universal theories of fascism as a phenomenon. Still, it leaves a lot to be desired, in terms of introducing a modern student to even the most important theoretical works of the time, and I would suggest that anyone looking for such an introduction today would be better served by a reading of Mosse’s “Crisis of German Ideology,” Nolte’s “Three Faces of Fascism” and the first number of the Journal of Contemporary History, which focused on “International Fascism” as its them. All of these served as sources for this volume, and would work better unabridged.

The first section in this work is “Origins and Definitions of Fascism” and serves as the theoretical context for the rest of the volume. The sources are Mosse’s introductory essay for the Journal of Contemporary History volume mentioned above and part of Nolte’s introduction to his book. These essays proclaim fascism as a movement of “youth” and of anti-Marxism, respectively. That’s not much of a theoretical underpinning, but, compared to the “nihilism” that defines most of the book’s essays, it’s a start. At least these fascists seem to believe in something.

The next section, on “The Italian Example,” quickly undermines that. Here we get the frequently-reprinted encyclopedia entry on fascist doctrine by Mussolini (or authored by others and signed by him, as the case may be), a piece by Arturo Rossi, a contemporary antifascist, and another by Denis Mack Smith, who is almost as polemical in his condemnation of fascism as Rossi. At least he offers some economic statistics to buttress his critique, but very little insight into fascist ideology or theory is included. On the whole, the section appears to suggest, Italian Fascism was about whatever was expedient.

Just as bad or worse is the section on “Hitler and National Socialism,” which seems to be dominated by a selection from Hermann Rauschning’s since discredited “Revolution of Nihilism.” It’s not the longest piece, but Greene allows it to be the defining voice of the section, supported as it is by the conclusion from Alan Bullock’s biography of Hitler (which was quite dependent on Rauschning), and a piece by T..L. Jarman which concludes that the only goal of “Hitler’s Revolution” was power. This is offset by another piece from Nolte, excerpted from “Three Faces,” called “Practice as Fulfillment,” which makes essentially the same argument.

The last section is called “Poetry and Fascism: Spain and France,” and offers one article for each country, preventing any internal comparison of scholarship. The piece on Spain is by Stanley Payne, from his book “The Falange,” while the French are treated by Robert Soucy, in his article from the Journal of Contemporary History. This section at least concedes that some fascists (of necessity the unsuccessful ones) were “idealists” and capable of poetry. It does serve to explain why Franconian Spain and Vichy France are not considered variants of true fascism by most scholars, and give some insight into the indigenous fascist movements in those countries. Payne’s essay is the only thing of value that someone following my recommendation above would miss (instead they would get Hugh Thomas’s essay on Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera), and certainly anyone specifically interested in Spanish Fascism would need to read Payne, but for introductory purposes it is an acceptable loss.

The best argument for reading this version instead is that it may be hard to find a copy of the initial issue of the JCH. I find that it is held in J-STOR, but it is inexplicably behind a paywall, so independent scholars without a University affiliation will be unable to access these articles. Hopefully one day it will be made available through open access, but for now, finding an old copy of this inferior volume may be necessary.