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A History of Fascism, 1914-1945
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This is the first full history of fascism - as a force and as a phenomenon - in Europe and elsewhere between the world wars. This history encompasses all the major fascist movements, as well as other forms of authoritarian nationalism, and provides in-depth analyses of these movements, the interpretative problems they pose, and previous interpretations of them. Stanley G.
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Paperback, 632 pages
Published
July 15th 1996
by University of Wisconsin Press
(first published January 1st 1995)
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It took me a long time to read A History of Fascism: 1914-1945 because I treated it as a textbook by underlining, making my personal index in the front matter, and making notations in the margins. Since it is published by the University of Wisconsin Press, it was most likely initially conceived to be a textbook for an upper division course, but I read it to understand what seems to be happening in our country (the United States) in 2020. And, although Payne suggest something of an “It Can’t Happ
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Not as good as Paxton, imo. But a very solid, thorough review of a large mass of material. Payne occasionally does give way to some social science jargon --, which Paxton really never does. Still, it is really the best single-volume 'history' of the topic (whereas Paxton is more topical and analytical).
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I had to read this book for my comprehensive exams (aka prelims). While the introductions to fascism in various countries were useful, what I really appreciated was the attempt to link various movements together into one group. What is 'fascism' if you try to define it beyond Italy? Can one speak of a generic version of fascism? What is fascism? The later chapters of this book go a long way to answering these questions, and thus contribute to an expansive scholarly debate about the nature of one
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Where do I begin with this book...
First of all, Payne does not have an engaging style of writing. Too many times I felt my eyelids getting heavy reading this book - an undesirable achievement for the author, considering it's a subject I enjoy learning about.
There's also the problem of being pedantic when it comes to the definition of fascism, which is a recurring theme throughout the book at various, awkward stages. I understand that fascism can be difficult to define, but I couldn't help but be ...more
First of all, Payne does not have an engaging style of writing. Too many times I felt my eyelids getting heavy reading this book - an undesirable achievement for the author, considering it's a subject I enjoy learning about.
There's also the problem of being pedantic when it comes to the definition of fascism, which is a recurring theme throughout the book at various, awkward stages. I understand that fascism can be difficult to define, but I couldn't help but be ...more
May 12, 2019
Joseph Sverker
rated it
it was amazing
Shelves:
history-stuff,
totalitarianism-and-related
A very impressive work on fascism not only in Europe but also about the (possible) spread of the ideology beyond the borders of Europe. As that turns out, it is not self evident that there is much that could be called fascism outside of Europe. Payne seems to argue that Saddam Hussain might be the most evident case. Of course it is very complex to define what fascism is and I'm not able to recall the exact definition simply by writing from heart, but in terms of the origins of fascism it is inte
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Scholarly and interesting history of fascism. We live in a time where no one knows what fascism is, but everyone uses the word regularly to describe people they dont like politically. Its nice to now have a well rounded grasp of what each iteration of this political view believed. Fascism got a bad rep due to Hitler, but not all fascist movements were racist, genocidal, or totalitarian. Highly recommend it if you want to have a more historically grounded understanding of these political ideas as
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A History of Fascism: 1914-1945 by Stanley Payne
Please give my Amazon review a helpful vote: https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-re...
The last several years have seen a "Brown Scare" of sorts, where college students and sophisticated city dwellers have started seeing "Fascists" everywhere, although, in fact, fascism was eliminated in 1945 in a decisive war, after which it has retreated to the margins. In contrast, Communism was one of the victors in that war and came out of the war with enhanced ...more
Please give my Amazon review a helpful vote: https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-re...
The last several years have seen a "Brown Scare" of sorts, where college students and sophisticated city dwellers have started seeing "Fascists" everywhere, although, in fact, fascism was eliminated in 1945 in a decisive war, after which it has retreated to the margins. In contrast, Communism was one of the victors in that war and came out of the war with enhanced ...more
(A 3.5 star rating to be more precise)
In today's political climate (at least the anglo-american one I see in social media), the terms fascism and nazism are used quite a lot to attack a wide variety of groups and people with differing ideas. The terms are clearly abused by the modern socialists and the mainstream promotes a general ignorance of what they actually were supposed to mean by their creators. I guess due to this I started to view the term "fascism" as irrelevant and void of meaning; T ...more
In today's political climate (at least the anglo-american one I see in social media), the terms fascism and nazism are used quite a lot to attack a wide variety of groups and people with differing ideas. The terms are clearly abused by the modern socialists and the mainstream promotes a general ignorance of what they actually were supposed to mean by their creators. I guess due to this I started to view the term "fascism" as irrelevant and void of meaning; T ...more
A History of Fascism, 1914-1945 by Stanley G. Payne is a study of Fascism from before World War I th the end of World War II. Of course it includes, and even focuses on, the usual suspects of Mussolini's Italy and Hitler's Germany. But the author also looks at many other versions in various countries around the world and discusses why they are similar to Germany or Italy or not and what forms they actually had taken. Many of these have their roots in socialist states including Nazi Germany where
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Thorough, readable, and fair. Payne is most strongly opinionated in his periodic anticommunist asides, but if their almost total irrelevance to the subject matter means they detract from the quality of the work a little, it also means that they can't detract from its quality to any great degree. Although he comes to no particularly interesting opinions himself, he represents those of others fairly well; and his is also the best comparative narrative history of fascist movements that I am aware o
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Very detailed, but very dry in parts. And I'm saying this as someone who doesn't mind dry history books. You have to be really into this subject to enjoy this book. The author does know his stuff and I did learn quite a lot about the minor right-wing ultra-nationalist movements in Europe in the late 19th century.
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This book provides a great overview to all the fascist movements going during the time period. My only criticism is that I had the author as a professor, and reading his writing is sort of like listening to him lecture. But, if you are looking for an excellent resource book on fascism, and I know you are, this is your book!
Dec 19, 2020
Marsel
added it
I want to read this book
Stanley Payne provides one of the most thorough and accurate overviews of Fascism in this book. The biggest problem with much of the fascist literature is that it combines fascism and Nazism into one category when in fact they are quite different. Payne grasps these nuances quite well and shows the nature and development of each. He tracks not only the rise of fascism in Italy but across Europe and the world. It looks at the failed movements in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe and the budding move
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a bit dated now but quite enjoyable and it seems well researched. shows the variety of the national approaches to fascism rather well, each in their own historical and national context. The book does also a good job of explaining the diverse interpretations and approaches to understanding and explaining the emergence and the nature of fascism, making this a good historical entry-level read on the subject.
plus it's always fun to see how similar are the blood brothers of communism and fascism, an ...more
plus it's always fun to see how similar are the blood brothers of communism and fascism, an ...more
This book did a good job of attempting to tackle a vast subject, but the author has absolutely no flow to his writing, and even the interesting parts of this book were unreadable. As I told people this semester: "Payne" didn't just describe the author, it was also an apt adjective for the book.
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As a university history major this book definitely became one of my go too books during my time of thesis writing. Payne has the the wonderful ability to offer an in-depth history of fascism in such a manner that even those with little to no knowledge of what fascism is can understand what the author is writing about.
Payne provides an exhaustive review of the fascist phenomenon, largely in Europe, in the early years of the 20th Century. He not only chronicles the rise and fall of fascist movements but comprehensively analyzes what made a fascist movement and what did not. It can at times be rather dry reading but it's a valuable use of time.
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Perhaps a little dated now (2014), but still a very detailed and perceptive analysis of historical fascism. Part II, dealing with interpretations of fascism, is still quite good for revealing the conceptual problems that exist in understanding this terrible political movement.
A History of Fascism, gives a good timeline but not else. You may fell differently. Enjoy!
Very invaluable work.
An impressive synthesis and analysis, meticulously researched. Outstanding bibliography, and extremely well written.
A little dated but hey it covers every single fascist movement in the 20th century. The work for this book must have been enormous.
He was my professor for the European History between the World Wars class I took as an undergrad. Dr. Payne knows his stuff (and was a very interesting professor in the classroom)!
Payne's "History of Fascism" is the standard text on the subject and holds up well years after it was first published. If you want to learn about the rise of Fascism in Europe start here.
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penetrating analysis of intellectual foundations and practice of fascism.
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“Lenin did not create the political doctrines of fascism, but his Communist totalitarianism based on systematic mass violence initiated most of the new practices and institutions of fascist-type regimes.”
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“Forming a fascio—the term means band, union, or league—had been standard practice among various sectors of Italian radicalism since the 1870s.”
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