Fascism: 8a History

Eatwell is an astute observer of fascism's insidious appeal to workers and intellectuals alike. Far from being a mere opportunistic tool of reaction or a nihilistic movement lacking a coherent ideology, fascism, he argues, had underpinnings in a distinct set of ideas drawn from both the right and the left. Its fanatical nationalism celebrated the holistic community over the individual as it sought to forge a radical ""third way"" between capitalism and communism under charismatic, totalitarian rule. Hitler and Mussolini, he points out, were driven by strong ideological motives, a warped division of the world into good and evil. An important, engrossing study, his vivid analytical history examines how British and French libertarian traditions helped defuse fascism's appeal, although the interwar years saw the emergence in Britain of Arnold Leeser's virulently anti-Semitic Imperial Fascist League and Sir Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists, while many French intellectuals embraced fascist ideology. Eatwell, a British social scientist, concludes with a chilling look at neo-fascist groups in Germany, Italy, France and Britain. (Aug.)