Photo: Cover of 'Fascism: The story of an idea', by Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey.
Fascism: The story of an idea
By Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey
What is fascism exactly? It is a word bandied around to describe anything from Nazism to the trivial bossy behaviour of ticket collectors and parking attendants. Does fascism describe a bygone period of history, or do we see it emerging again today, in an age of populism?
This short book is a very clarifying read, and an invaluable summary of how fascism originated. The authors go on to suggest it has found new seedbeds in Europe (especially Russia and Hungary), and, more controversially, in the USA. They discuss the second Trump administration, Project 2025, and Donald Trump’s attack on democratic structures, the judiciary, the press and the universities.
The writing is straightforward: no historical or sociological knowledge is presumed. It sets out to offer an ‘antidote to confusion, tracing a major political idea from its origins to today’s headlines’.
At the heart of the book is a clear description of the genesis of fascism in Italy in the early twentieth century, and its adoption by Adolf Hitler in Germany. Readers will then want to concentrate their attention on a chapter entitled ‘Fascism Today’, and the epilogue, ‘The Story of Fascism’. They will come to their own conclusions about modern developments.
‘A very clarifying read.’
What are fascism’s historical continuities and differences? The authors emphasise the ongoing, powerful link between internal psychology and the associated political dividing of ‘us’ (good) and ‘them’ (bad). This split can be viscerally appealing, especially at times of challenging economic and social crisis. At such moments there seems to be an ineluctable pull to an emergent ‘strong’ person, who will dissolve all difficulty and complexity, and provide a simple solution. Think of Trump distributing his red MAGA hats. There is little requirement for anyone to analyse deeply, just to put the hat on.
How does one resist this pull? How might one respond? The authors suggest we need, at these times, to ‘nurture individual freedom [not the group], seek consensus instead of absolute victory, refuse to worship leaders, and recognise the equal value of all people’.
These are core Quaker values, laid down 350 years ago, also in a turbulent political and economic period, way before fascism developed. These are Quaker, anti-fascist principles, set before the word existed.
This book may even clarify and sharpen some Friends’ Quaker identity. Interested readers might want to go on to read Ian Dunt’s How to be a Liberal: The story of freedom and the fight for its survival; or, from a different, more psychological perspective, Eric Fromm’s The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness.
We live in worrying times.
