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Nascimento da ideologia fascista

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Apresente obra propõe-se restabelecer o verdadeiro peso da ideologia no desenvolvimento do fascismo e explorar a sua fase de formação em Itália, mas também e antes de mais em Franca, berço do revisionismo revolucionário soreliano, componente primeira do fascismo.
Aliados aos nacionalistas, aos futuristas e a outros vanguardistas, os revisionistas revolucionários italianos encontraram, antes mesmo de 1914, as tropas, as condições e o chefe que lhes permitiram transformar em forca histórica a longa incubação intelectual iniciada no princípio do século.

427 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1989

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Zeev Sternhell

26 books29 followers

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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
Profile Image for AC.
2,313 reviews
June 3, 2023
New Review (2023): This is an excellent and sophisticated introduction to what Sternhell believes is the primary fascist doctrine developed by French and then Italian non-conformist revolutionaries just prior and subsequent to the Great War — before the seizure of power in Italy forced a wide-spread accommodation with many of the pre-existing institutions of Italy. This body of thought was no less coherent, he thinks, than Marxism (which had already suffered many alterations and deviations by this time. Thus, the “origins of fascist ideology” of the title.

Fascism was a synthesis between two very strands of 19th cen. European thought. First, the organic, integral nationalism of Maurice Barrès and Enrico Corradini which saw the nation as the primary unit (of which the individual was just a dim expression) that head its roots deep in occult realms of Romantik and the Counter-Enlightenment and which was intensely anti-intellectual, anti-rationalist, and anti-individualist. And, secondly, and an anti-materialist (i.e. Nietschean) and vitalist deviation of non-conformist (anti-Reformist) Marxists connected with the Cercle Proudhon, Georges Sorel, and the Anarcho-Syndicalist, and of which the polemics of the young Mussolini was the final culmination.

A very good book, and largely persuasive — though Sternhell’s strong emphasis on the French origins of this synthesis have proven to be controversial.



First Review (2012): This book is essential reading. Anyone interested in the subject should closely read the long introductory chapter which summarizes Sternhell's view -- among other things, he analyzes Fascism's roots in the anarcho-syndicalist methodology (myth) and aims of Georges Sorel, the movement which animated Mussolini's radical socialism; and the radical, anti-capitalist, developmentalist origins of the movement. Sternhell was sued for libel by certain French reactionaries, and the specifics of the case themselves make interesting reading/googling.
Profile Image for Jesse.
160 reviews58 followers
August 19, 2022
A compelling explanation of the intellectual origins of Italian Fascism, tracing a line from Georges Sorel to Mussolini.

Sorel, originally a Marxist socialist, began a process of "anti-materialist" revisions of Marxism that eventually abandoned all of the original content, leaving only a belief in the necessity of revolution. These revisions were discussed and implemented by groups of "revolutionary syndicalists", who eventually evolved into "nationalist socialists" and finally "Fascists". It was only with this final turn that they self-consciously broke ranks with the Left and began fighting and exterminating the socialists and labor unions.

Some of the crucial revisions and the reasons/situations which led to them (note that explaining why these revisions occurred is not the same as justifying them):

- The failure of parliamentary socialism -> anti-democratic values must be cultivated, the political party must be abandoned (anti-liberalism, anti-politics)

- Socialist parties are weak because they believe that capitalism will evolve into socialism without the self-conscious action of workers -> science and materialism must be replaced with a belief in the human will (anti-materialism, voluntaristic idealism)

- Strikes require heroic, even violent, action -> violence must be idolized (anti-pacifism)

- Violent action is encouraged by a willingness to sacrifice oneself -> individualistic values must be replaced by a belief in collectivities (the party, the corporation, the nation) in whose service new values must be developed (anti-individualism)

- Social welfare reduces the desire for violent revolt -> social reforms become seen as negative (anti-reformism)

- Reason inhibits bold action -> myth and irrationalism must replace reason (anti-enlightenment/irrationalism)

- Finance capitalism is unproductive and harmful to society -> the distinction between bourgeois and proletariat is replaced by one between producers and parasites (abandonment of the Marxist notions of class)

- Neoclassical economics suggested that a true "free market" would be beneficial to all producers alike -> capitalism and private property must be upheld, the revolution becomes a rebellion against bourgeois values and not against economic exploitation (abandonment of anti-capitalism)

- Recent sociology (Mosca, Pareto) suggested that all societies are run by a class of elites -> a heroic elite must be cultivated (abandonment of anti-elitism)


At this point in their evolution, the "revolutionary syndicalists" in France and Italy have stopped resembling Marxist socialism or anarchism almost entirely. All they have left is a disdain for "bourgeois values" and a belief in a violent revolution led by elite "syndicates" of workers. But, when even the syndicates fail to be interested in revolution, the "revolutionary syndicalists" start looking for other ways to cultivate heroic revolutionary values. They toy around with using nationalism, imperialism, and warfare as ways to develop these virtues.

We can finally see Fascism take its "classical" shape: a cultivation of heroic, violent values, encouraged by fighting for one's Nation, is supposed to lead to a revolution in morality which leaves the productive economic structures intact. Social unrest comes to an end, not when exploitation is ended, but when everyone knows their place within a harmonious society working in the service of the Nation.
30 reviews
May 27, 2025
Phenomenal intellectual history of Fascism. Interesting to see how syndicalism, revisions and distortions of Marxism, and of course nationalism helped provide the basis for Fascism. Should be a must read for those interested in the subject as well as a watching of the show Mussolini: Son of the Century.
32 reviews
Want to Read
April 18, 2024
Рекомендация:
«Мне могут возразить, что среди французских коллаборантов были и видные представители французских левых – или, по крайней мере – бывших левых; самые яркие примеры – Жак Дорио и Марсель Деа. Должно ли это говорить об идейной преемственности между левыми идеями (как минимум, в некотором изводе) и нацизмом/фашизмом? В качестве ответа я сошлюсь на работы Зеева Штернхеля, в частности на его «Рождение фашистской идеологии». Штернхель – историк левых взглядов, изучающий правые и ультраправые движения и ему принадлежит тезис, согласно которому «фашизм – это правая идеология, созданная бывшими левыми». Штернхелю хорошо удаётся показать как и по каким идейным соображениям некоторые крупные левые политики и интеллектуалы – прежде всего во Франции и Италии – в промежутке между двумя мировыми войнами и позже, уже во время Второй мировой – склонялись вправо, радикально вправо. Наличие идейной преемственности здесь не отрицается, иными словами, левые учёные (по крайней мере, их лучшие представители) имеют достаточно научной честности, чтобы признать тот факт, что ультраправые XX века немало переняли и многому научились именно у левых. Умеренно-правым исследователям, желающим «отмазать» фигуры вроде Морраса от каких-либо связей с фашизмом, есть здесь чему поучиться».
147 reviews8 followers
January 4, 2015
written by an academic for an audience with considerably more of turn-of-the-century political knowledge than myself, i struggled with the references that assumed knowledge of a variety of political figures from that era, particularly at the beginning of the book.

given my limited knowledge base — i knew essentially nothing about the rise of italian fascism — this was a fascinating book describing how fascism was initially born from a series of overlapping ideological trends largely derived from a variety of marxist traditions. the key element in the ideologic stew of fasciscm was the Sorelian rejection of materialism, rationalism and utilitarianism and the replacement with the idea of myth creation as the essential element of political philosophy. throw in a dash of militant rationalism and dissatisfaction with the proletariat's failure to overthrow the bourgeousie and from a non-nationalistic class-based political philosophy arises a militaristic, corporatist dictatorship. fascinating stuff.
Profile Image for Becca.
54 reviews
May 12, 2012
Very dry, and it definitely reads as a translation, but a good overall introduction to the origins of fascism and the connections to other prevalent ideologies throughout Europe at the time.
6 reviews
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November 14, 2021
"The birth of fascist ideology', as the tittle suggests, is an investigation of the intelectual origins of fascism. Its main theses is that fascism, as ideological framework, had already laid its foundations at the beginning of XX century, mainly developed by exotic radical syndicalists and erratic marxists like the french Georg Sorel. Zeev Sternhell relates the ideological core of fascism to the attempt to denounce the weakness of a degenerated society, plagued by rationalism, universalism, secularism, individualism and materialism - all of this being the heritage of the revolutionary waves that took shape in the XVII and have changed radically the intelectual and political realm since on. To put it another way, fascism was meant to be a rebellion against the enlightenment values of bourgeois society of late XIX.

Because of that, the intelectual forerunners of fascism had 'revolutionary' intentions as they tried to conceive violent means to bring down all those degenerated liberal values that they had denounced. Violence, by the way, according to fascists wasn't only an instrumental strategy to achieve political goals, but fundamentally a 'virtue' that should be glorified and exalted as the centerpiece of a 'heroic' society. Initially, fascists like Sorel did see the 'proletariat' as political subject capable of leading the struggle against the 'moral decadence' of society, but later, as workers were turning themselves into political asset of parties and institutions, thus losing their revolutionary drive, fascists started to become ever more suspicious about how the class struggle could be a proper vehicle to fascism's aims.

With the irruption of WWI and the state showing its capacity to mobilize the popular mass towards the passions of nationalism fascists did perceive the nation-state as a great actor in the shaping of a conscious prone to ''heroic voluntarism' so praised by them. The new society envisioned by fascists must be masculine, nationalistic and driven by the 'spiritual myth' instead of empty rationalistic principles. Therefore, at this stage, fascism had moved from 'class struggle' to the terrain of nationalism to run its ideological agenda.

Aside the ''myth' of violence and heroism, fascists also pretended to claim the ''national community' in contrast to the atomized individuals alienated from their community roots. Oddly, fascists didn't see any problem with market relations founded on the private property and competition, which means that they had conceived a harmonic relation among, nation, community and capitalist economy. That's one of the central assertions of fascism: capitalist order without its disruptive tendencies of atomization and alienation caused by the destructive impact of market relations on traditional commumties .

The book ends with an analysis of Mussolini's intellectual and political trajectory. From socialism to fascism, Mussolini manage to create a strong movement in which the nation had the prevalence. He was able to mobilize the energies of a fractured Italy in the wake of WWI and foresee an imperialistic redemption that should be brought by a modernization process. In the of turmoil of early 1920's, the liberal and conservative elite decided to support the fascists as the latter had proved themselves functional to suppress the communists and maintain the order. The original aspiration of fascism to destroy liberal values ended up historically with the association with the elite that had asserted such values at the end of XIX century.
Profile Image for OSCAR.
542 reviews6 followers
December 12, 2019
Fue una lectura terrible, a ratos desesperada. Uno a cada momento siente uno que quiere aventar el libro por la ventana. Es posible que esto se deba a que gran parte del libro estudia periodos de tiempo y lugares sobre los cuales no tenía información previa. En caso contrario, el libro no me hubiera dejado tan azorado en algunos momentos, incluso en conflicto conmigo mismo por no poder mantener un ritmo respetable de lectura.

Las partes primera y última del libro fueron para mí las más sencillas, justamente por contar con conocimiento previo de los temas tratados. La parte árida fue la relacionada con el socialismo nacional de los herederos intelectuales de Georg Sorel ya en Francia ya en Italia. Lo bueno que saco de la lectura de este libro fue haber conocido a autores como Labriola o D'Ambris. Pueden ser útiles para conocer el pensamiento político italiano. No sobra agregar que la parte central del texto nos aporta datos sobre la historia italiana previa a la Primera Guerra Mundial, que no serán de menospreciar para el historiador o el mero aficionado a los estudios en tal ramo.

Pensé encontrar en este libro respuestas para entender el fascismo y me quedé con más dudas. La prolijidad de datos abruma, y no se sabe si alabar al autor por haber hecho semejante labor de recopilación, o reprenderlo por su falta de concisión. No obstante, considero que volvería a leer otro libro de este autor; es menester estudiar estos temas sobre la Derecha histórica y sorprende en el mundo hispano la ignorancia al respecto. Por esta labor de investigación, el libro, fuera de su redacción, merece todo mi aprecio.



Profile Image for Scott.
39 reviews11 followers
December 20, 2024
In many ways, this is an important, insightful work explicating fascist thought -- high-falutin intellectual history. However, Sternhell misses the obvious point that fascism was (is) an ideology of action, less concerned with ponderous intellectuality (how many of them had actually read Sorel, or even Kant?) than it was with extralegal ultraviolence. In other words, 20th-century fascism did indeed constitute an ideology of sorts, but one that was fundamentally negative (ultra-reactionary), rather than programmatic or policy-oriented. Zeev (gesundheit!) also provoked well-justified derision for his hair-splitting insistence that Nazism was not fascism - mainly because, he says, the former was more racist than Italian and French fascisms. Come again?
44 reviews
March 5, 2026
Coming from a liberal author who is a self proclaimed, "super-zionist", this is a more or less great insight into the development of Fascist ideology as it came into being. Something to take note of is the fact that the first step that most early fascists took to arrive at their ideology is the transition from materialism to idealism. From rationalism, to anti-rationalism. I suppose I understand in a broad sense why some think Communism and Fascism are two sides of the same coin, but it's more like Fascism is the inbred, half cousin of Communism. If anything, this book reaffirms the need for contemporary communists to retain a rigorous understanding of Marxism in order to allow this to continue happening over and over again.
Profile Image for James Millikan.
206 reviews29 followers
March 20, 2018
Engrossing intellectual history by Israeli scholar Zeev Sternhell. According to Sternhell, fascism in early 20th century Europe was no historical anomaly; it was a direct response to philosophical, political, and economic currents put into motion during the Enlightenment. My historical understanding of this period is limited, and I don't assume that Sternhell presents the complete picture of the period, but this account of the ideology that leads to totalitarianism deserves careful consideration by concerned global citizens everywhere.
Profile Image for M.
45 reviews29 followers
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December 8, 2025
Quand l'antirationalisme devient un instrument politique, un moyen de mobilisation des masses et une machine de guerre contre le libéralisme, le marxisme et la démocratie, quand l'antirationalisme est associé à un intense pessimisme culturel, quand il va de pair avec un culte prononcé de la violence et des élites agissantes, alors la pensée fasciste prend fatalement corps.
Profile Image for Michael Calvillo.
2 reviews1 follower
February 3, 2021
Sternhell examines the stirrings of fascist ideology from the left and uncovers how important ideology was to the movement. He traces various strains of revolutionary theory from their origins in Marxist thought and follows these strains in their journey from socialist theory to fascistic fact.
Profile Image for Hein Htet.
66 reviews9 followers
April 24, 2025
He confirmed me that there used to be a few honest leftists who acknowledge the ideological root kind of lineage connection between Marxism and fascism.

Nowadays, some leftists would even cry when fascism is claimed as “querfront”. They all think it’s merely far-right out of their ignorance.
Profile Image for Nicola Terlizzi.
14 reviews
October 12, 2025
Bel coronamento della trilogia, descritta benissimo la genealogia ideologica del fascismo. Interessante e legittima la tesi per cui il fascismo è figlio del sindacalismo rivoluzionario, sbagliato affermare che già il sindacalismo rivoluzionario di inizio Novecento abbia una ideologia di tipo fascista. Nelle ultime pagine qualche contraddizione nel momento in cui si cerca di dimostrare che la concezione fascista dell'economia sia una riproposizione del liberismo (forse per dimostrare il legame con il sindacalismo rivoluzionario, effettivamente liberista). Anche la conclusione risente di qualche errore da risolvere avvalendosi degli studi ad esempio di A. James Gregor. Essenziale ma completo il capitolo sul percorso ideologico di Mussolini.
Profile Image for Mirza  Sultan-Galiev.
85 reviews
December 5, 2010
A good complement to "Neither Left nor Right".
Notes how those who rejected the democratic reformism of mainstream prewar socialism drifted towards Fascism on the one hand (a cultural radicalism which rejected historical materialism and accepted the CMP as a given), or moved towards Bolshevism on the other.
Profile Image for Matko.
15 reviews
March 21, 2012
Absolutely brilliant! The first real history of the rise of an ideology - Fascism - that marked the first half of the 20th century. Zeev Sternhell masterfully guides the reader from Sorel's revision of Marxism, the fusion with Maurras's Action Française, to Fascism's intellectual maturation in Italy. What he writes won't be accepted by everyone, especially not by the Left.
Profile Image for AC.
2,313 reviews
November 14, 2008
It is enough to simply read the introduction to this book -- about 40-50 pages. It will teach you about the radical origins of Italian fascism. Good stuff.
8 reviews1 follower
February 14, 2013
What? Yes, fascism has philosophical origins buster, and don't you forget it!
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews