Fascism in Theory

This book is intended as a replyto the new discipline of 'fascism studies'. It is a critique of a particular literature which has grown up onlyrecently, over the past ten or twentyyears. Fascism studies is itself an academic response to developments in the outside world, including the rise of fascist parties in continental Europe and elsewhere. This literature, as it has been developed through the writings of Roger Griffin, StanleyPayne and Zeev Sternhell, amongst others, describes fascism primarilyin terms of its ideas. These writers define fascism through the intellectual development of fascist thinkers, rather than the actual practice of Mussolini's Italyor Hitler's Germany. Focusing on fascist intellectuals rather than fascist movements, the writers and theorists of fascism studies exaggerate the revolutionarycontent of fascist practice, and make fascism appear to be a much more positive movement that it was or is.