Fascism (Oxford Readers)

I cannot recommend this book enough to students of history and political science. Utterly indespensible and completely fascinating from front to back. It was immediately put to use on a research paper and I will use it again and again in the future.

In the scholarly debate about the existence of fascist doctrine, Griffin takes the stance that such a doctrine did not exist. This position makes him very inclusive in recognizing almost any ultra-nationalist movement as "fascist". It also dictates the very unphilosophical character of most of his selections: Most of them are ad-hoc speeches or short columnist pieces, focused on or evoked by current events, that express the ideas of their authors in vehement and excited slogans rather than in discursive, abstract argumentation.One may claim: That is the true fascist talk. But I disagree. Some fascist thinkers, like Gentile and Panunzio, certainly had philosophical argumentations, and saw themselves as spokesmen of a well-ordered political philosophy. A good book ought to give room for this type of works, too.The book may be very useful for history students - not for anyone who seeks an honest and sine ira presentation of fascist thought.

Helpful for a history class

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I just received the paperback version and the type (print) is small and blurred. Reminds me of mimeographed notes we in made college. I still remember the first Xerox machine that appeared on campus in 1963-1964. Shame on Oxford University Press for releasing a printed book with such an unreadable type.

Like every other Oxford Readers book in the market....ABSOLUTELY GREAT!This book allows you to appropiate the basic concepts regarding what is Fascism, this allows you to move on to more especific books on the subject and therefore make a move to more thorough analysis on the subject.It also presents you with the main theorists that have supported fascism since the early twenties until the end of the century.Another very interesting thing is that it also introduces you to very non orthodox fascisms, as well as to some that are not really known to the common reader. It analyses Fascisms from places such as Ireland, Estonia, Hungary, BraziL and South Africa among others.

Roger Griffin is controversial author for history because he is british and from Oxford. I wanted to buy some of his books about fascism but I am not gonna pay this guilty money for this paraliterature.Root of all problems with fascism is like all problems with history: They created fiction instead history and now, in internet era, it is being exposed. So they cover it with other layer of fiction until no more layers can be put there.Michael Parenti expresed everything in very easy to swallow way in book: Egainst Empire:"Imperialism has been the most powerful force in world history over the last four or five centuries, carving up whole continents while oppressing indigenous peoples and obliterating entire civilizations. Yet, it is seldom accorded any serious attention by our academics, media commentators, and political leaders. When not ignored outright, the subject of imperialism has been sanitized, so that empires become "commonwealths," and colonies become "territories" or "dominions" (or, as in the case of Puerto Rico, "commonwealths" too). Imperialist military interventions become matters of "national defense," "national security," and maintaining "stability" in one or another region.... A particularly pernicious example of intra-European imperialism was the Nazi aggression during World War II, which gave the German business cartels and the Nazi state an opportunity to plunder the resources and exploit the labor of occupied Europe, including the slave labor of concentration camps."There is only 1 universal ideology: Money and power. This is like human's body.And other so called ideologies are like dresses/clothing which are changing fashion from era to era.Accent on fascism/nazism is pressed because this chapter of western imperialism was not succesful and they try to disconect it from succesfull chapters of imperialism.See points 1 and 3 in Program NSDAP vs Lebensraum; what is previous Drang nacht Osten. Wikipedia is now more dynamic source of knowledge that books. See on wikipedia: Fascism and Ideology; Italian imperialism under Fascism; Economics of fascism; Subsequent Nuremberg Trials.

This book is a part of "The Oxford Readers" series and as such is not a single text on fascism, it's a collection of over two hundred excerpts from fascist books, pamphlets, speeches and other primary sources. Roger Griffin, a British political scientist well known in the field of fascist studies, provides a short commentary for each excerpt as well as very informative introductions to each section of the book. The book as a whole is divided into sections covering Italian Fascism, German fascism (including non-Nazi fascist thinkers), abortive fascisms from the inter-war period (including non-European fascist movements), interpretations of fascism (Marxist as well as non-Marxist theories), and finally a section on contemporary fascism which brings the survey of fascist movements up to date as of the 1995 publishing date of the book.Griffin's definition of what is fascist and what is not centers on what he terms the "palingenetic form of ultra-nationalism" - the revolutionary rebirth of a society after is has been purged and cleansed of elements considered by fascists to be harmful. One recurring theme is that fascism takes on different forms in different societies but the palingenetic myth remains at the core of Griffin's definition.Fascism is very difficult to eradicate, it is able to undergo very substantial remolding to fit changed times and new circumstances without losing its essential palingenetic myth which is unique to each society it appears in. There are no more torchlight parades by brownshirts and blackshirts yet fascism remains as virulent a political disease as ever; this political disease must be studied and understood and this book is an excellent means to that end.