The Anatomy of Fascism

By: Robert O. Paxton

Narrated by: Arthur Morey

Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

What is fascism? By focusing on the concrete, what the fascists did rather than what they said, the esteemed historian Robert O. Paxton answers this question for the first time. From the first violent uniformed bands beating up "enemies of the state", through Mussolini's rise to power, to Germany's fascist radicalization in World War II, Paxton shows clearly why fascists came to power in some countries and not others, and he explores whether fascism could exist outside the early-20th-century European setting in which it emerged.

The Anatomy of Fascism will have a lasting impact on our understanding of modern European history, just as Paxton's classic Vichy France redefined our vision of World War II. Based on a lifetime of research, this compelling and important book transforms our knowledge of fascism.

©2007 Robert O. Paxton (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Over my head

This author is writing for a PhD level audience and I feel like an eighth grader. He writes a very, very deep and nuanced analysis of fascism focusing on German Nazism and Mussolini’s Italy and he also covers other fascist movements, military dictatorships, authoritarian regimes, etc. Its a very interesting subject and his exhaustive research and knowledge on the subject is incredible. The last 10 minutes of the reading are a concise and prescient definition of fascism and it is chilling to see how closely it aligns with current US political, social, and economic conditions that would be moving us toward a fascist state.

Very Informative

Very thorough and informative. The author went into great detail and provided a lot of very accessible framing and content. This is a good read if you hear people using "Fascist" to refer to things that you don't think fit that term, or if you see someone who is acting like a fascist but is trying to hide it. Performance was very good. Just soft enough so he doesn't put you to sleep but that you can listen to for a long stretch of time if you wish.

An incredibly informative read

Occasional skipping in the audio, but fantastic insights throughout. A must read for anybody interested in the topic. If you end up enjoying this, I would also suggest reading Sebastian Haffner's "Defying Hitler", for a more firsthand account of many of the phenomena discussed herein.

Cogent and convincing

A deeply thought out book about an elusive and odious ideology. This is a must read.

Just outstanding!

I loved this audiobook. Recommended for anyone interested in understanding the workings of fascism.

2004 Gold

It's nice to read a book actually about fascism. This was a great read. The only other book I've read that actually tried to categorize fascism was the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises' book "Omnipotent Government", in which he analyzed in great detail the economic policies of fascism and communism, and concluded that they were not very different-- thd only disputes were about who would be in charge.

I'll give some quotes from this audiobook below that I thought were worth taking note of.

Introduction
"Fascist movements varied so conspicuously from one national setting to another that some even doubt that the term 'Fascism' has any meaning other than as a smear word. The epithet has been so loosely used that practically everyone who either holds or shakes authority has been someone's fascist. 'Perhaps', the doubters suggest, 'it would be better just to scrap the term'."

Chapter 1. Strategies
"The classical 'isms' rested upon coherent philosophical systems laid out in the works of systematic thinkers. It seems only natural to explain them by examining their programs and the philosophy that underpinned them. Fascism, by contrast, was a new invention created afresh for the era of mass politics. It sought to appeal mainly to the emotions by the use of ritual, carefully stage-managed ceremonies, and intensely charged rhetoric. The role programs and doctrine play in it is, on closer inspection, fundamentally unlike the role they play in conservatism, liberalism, and socialism. Fascism does not rest explicity upon an elaborated philosophical system, but rather upon popular feelings about master races, their unjust lot, and their rightful predominance over inferior peoples. It has not been given intellectual underpinnings by any system-builder like Marx, or by any major critical intelligence like Mill, Burke, or Toqueville."

"Mussolini liked to declare that he himself was the definition of fascism. The will and leadership of a duce was what a modern people needed, not a doctrine. Only in 1932, after he had been in power for 10 years, and when he wanted to normalize his regime, did Mussolini expound fascist doctrine in an article partly ghostwritten by the philosopher Giovanni Gentile for the new Encyclodepia Italiana, 'Power came first, then doctrine.'"

"Hitler did present a program, 'The 25 points of February 1920', but he pronounced it immutable while ignoring many of its provisions. Though its anniversaries were celebrated, it was less a guide to action than a signal that debate had ceased within the party. In his first public address as chancellor, Hitler ridiculed those who say 'Show us the details of your program'. 'I have refused ever to step before this folk and make cheap promises."

Where do we go from here?
"The term fascism needs to be rescued from sloppy usage, not thrown out because of it. It remains indispensible. We need a generic term for what is a general phenomenon, indeed, the most political novelty of the twentieth century, a popular movement against the left and against liberal individualism."

Chapter 5.
Nazis were pro-natalism, pro-scientific research, and pro-eugenics. The medical powers loved the Nazi party.

Accomodation, Enthusiasm, Terror
"The Italian fascist pattern of violence was the opposite of the Nazi way. Mussolini spilled more blood coming to power than Hitler did, but his dictatorship was relatively mild after that. The main form of punishment for political dissidence was forced residence in remote southern hill villages. About 10,000 serious opponents of the regime were imprisoned in camps or on off-shore islands. The regime sentenced to death a mere nine opponents between 1926 and 1940."

The concentration camps of Nazi Germany were first made for the communists and socialists, not the Jews.

6. The long term: Radicalization or entropy?
"Virulently hostile to democracy, liberalism, secularism, Marxism, and especially Freemasonry, Franco joined Hitler and Mussolini in April 1939 as a signatory of the anti-commenturn(?) pact."

Trying to account for the holocaust
The original plan was expulsion, but leighway was given to the directors of the expulsions of the German Jews into Poland.

Chapter 8. What is Fascism?
"...which are the real fascisms?"
"An influential current considers fascism a developmental dictatorship established for the purpose of hastening industrial growth through forced savings and a regimented workforce. Proponents of this interpretation have looked primarily at the Italian case.
It could well be argued that Germany too, although already an industrial giant, needed urgently to discipline its people for the immense task of rebuilding after the defeat of 1918. This interpretation goes seriously wrong, however, in supposing that fascism pursued any rational economic goal whatever."

What is Fascism? (The final five minutes of the book.)
"The moment has come to give fascism a useable short handle, even though we know that it encompasses its subject no better than a snapshot encompasses a person. Fascism may be defined as a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood, and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints, goals of internal cleansing and external expansion."

Written in 2004, made an audiobook in 2017. I highly recommend, along with the Mises book "Omnipotent Government".

Edifying and relevant.

Enlightening and well argued. Very relevant to the political situation unfolding in the United States of America under Donald Trump's leadership.

Read, don't listen

great book going into incredible detail and analysis, but it should probably be read in physical form rather than listened to as it's easy to miss details or start drifting during prolonged passages. Still, an impressive work.

interesting topic, dry narrator.

the subject matter is interesting and so is the text. I found the narrator's voice to be a little too soothing and dry. I had to listen to certain chapters several times because I started to daydream while he was talking.

Great book for getting a clearer idea of fascism

A quite dense but incredibly rewarding and interesting summary of fascism in theory and practice. The emphasis in this book is on the practice. Paxton traces fascist movements through a series of stages, arguing that we learn more from fascism in action than we do from studying a doctrine. This is especially appropriate for fascism, which takes a cynical approach to ideological consistency, reason, and any kind of universal doctrine. The stages go from formation to wedging themselves into power to consolidating power to governing to radicalization or entropy. He shows these processes at work mainly in Germany and Italy. He argues that we can't take a snapshot of fascist movements at any point and say "This is fascism," because like any political movement fascists strategically ally with partners, downplay or play up certain aspects of their programs, and ally with conservative institutions in society. Rather, we have to see fascism as morphing around within certain limits over time.

This book is also interesting on the question of what conditions facilitate the rise of fascism. Obviously there is no recipe for fascism, but there are some cautionary points in this book. One key condition that helped Nazism and Italian fascism rise to power was conservative elites or parties allying with fascists in order to isolate or destroy socialist parties. The conservatives saw the communists or socialists as the worst imaginable threat, causing them to jump into bed with another, possibly worse, group. It certainly helped that they shared some of the same ideas about why society was going downhill . Although the scale is radically different, and Trump is not a fascist, this issue of allying with someone who will degrade your values or those of society at large in order to defeat what you view as an existential enemy calls for reflection among establishment Republicans. I thought this was the biggest 'lesson" of this book for the present.

Other key conditions that facilitated the rise of fascism were WWI's trauma, parliamentary gridlock, a loss of faith in democracy and liberal values like human rights, and the chaos created by fascist groups themselves. Paxton emphasizes that no fascist group ever won more than 50% of the vote, so they all needed some kind of help from established elites in getting their foot in the door. Mussolini's March to Rome, which would have flopped had King Victor Emmanuel not offered him a Cabinet position in a panicked error, is the perfect example of this point. Fascism was a mass totalitarian movement with genuine popular support, but it is important to not portray fascists as coming to power in mass revolutions or outright coups. In Germany and Italy, this was a much more gradual process, aided and abetted by mostly conservative elites who sought to co-opt and channel these forces (not that this isn't a good strategy-it didn't work here, that's all)

This is an outstanding guide for the perplexed on a term and set of movements that has gained newfound currency in our politics. Although sometimes I think Paxton is a little to strict on what counts as fascism (Imperial Japan seems to check virtually every box), he nevertheless captures the central dynamics of fascism. I was especially intrigued by the outright rejection of reason, the embrace of violence, the disdain for intellectual consistency, the strong sense of victimhood, and the worship of power. Mussolini may have reached the heart of fascism when someone asked him "What is your position on the liberal party?" He replied "Our position is to break their bones, and to do so as soon as possible." When someone else asked him what the fascist program was, he said it was to take and hold power. This pursuit of power as an end in itself is always present in human affairs, but in fascism this drive took its most extreme and destructive form. The same forces lie in human nature today. If anything, this book shows us that as people we are never as far from these dark pasts as we would like to think.

"Audible 20 Review Sweepstakes Entry."