European fascism;

by S.J. Woolf

In the late 1960s, the epithet "fascist" has risen like a phoenix from the ashes of World War II, used indiscriminately to describe a political style or to serve as a sweeping accusation against diverse political movements that range from the new left to the new military regime in Greece. The crisp, probing essays in this volume confront the fact of fascism as a real phenomenon and put the problem into a historical perspective that recently has been all too often ignored.European Fascism includes an introductory survey by Dr. S.J. Woolf as well as general chapters, by Professor Hugh Trevor-Roper and Dr. Christopher Seton-Watson, on fascism as a historical reality and its influence in contemporary Europe. The countries dealt with singly by the other contributors are Germany, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Rumania, Poland, Finland, Norway, Great Britain, France, Spain and Portugal. The volume also contains useful bibliographies and chronological tables.The fifteen essays herein, by leading authorities on the subject, offer us the first really comprehensive study of fascism in Europe, with a detailed analysis of its roots, its extraordinary strength between the two world wars, and its prospects in contemporary Europe.

386 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1968

Reviews

[John Eliade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably one of the most important works on 20th Century authoritarianism. It's drawback, which is present in literally any and every anthology, is the sharp difference in writing styles and voices which can have a whip-lash effect on the reader. We can go from a broad overview of what distinguishes Nazism from Fascism in Germany, to the granular breakdown of Hungary's inability to form a united Fascist organization, to the thriller-horror genre that was Romania's murder-spree Lovecraftian Fascism. Could have used a chapter on Sweden and possibly Yugoslavia since it covers pretty much all of the countries adjacent to them. But hey, you can't fit everything in.