A history of fascism, 1914-1945 Book

It took me a long time to read A History of Fascism: 1914-1945 because I treated it as a textbook by underlining, making my personal index in the front matter, and making notations in the margins. Since it is published by the University of Wisconsin Press, it was most likely initially conceived to be a textbook for an upper division course, but I read it to understand what seems to be happening in our country (the United States) in 2020. And, although Payne suggest something of an “It Can’t Happen Here” attitude, considering the book was written at the end of the 20th century, his epilogue on neofascist groups is quite enlightening. As university demonstrations and riots became common in the Italy of 1965, the right-wing extremist groups began to commit overt terrorist actions with bombings, assassinations, and beatings, though Italy was caught between two forces because the Marxist-Leninist Red Brigades were also perpetrating terrorism. But the action of the neofascists and neo-Nazis was proportionately more lethal (p. 506). The most famous of these neo-Nazi terrorist actions causing mass deaths were the huge explosion in Milan in 1969 and the Bologna train station bombing in 1980 (p. 507).

Now, to be sure, Payne isn’t as concerned with small extremist cells of neofascists as he is with a neofascism with the potential to make radical changes in the culture and infrastructure of a nation (or as with some Eurofascists, all over Europe). So, he discounts neofascism as taking hold outside of the preconditions that existed in early 20th century Europe (1—intense nationalistic and imperialistic sentiments, 2—liberal democracies in first generation, 3—opportunity to mobilize on a national scale without relying totally on elites or institutions, and 4—new cultural orientation arising out of fin de siècle cultural/intellectual ferment, p. 353). For example, he observes that even in the last part of the 20th century, the U.S. has had a proliferation of small, but often violent neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups, but notes their lack of political significance (p. 511). In addition, he pokes pins in the trial balloon implied in Sinclair Lewis’ It Can’t Happen Here that subtly suggested Charles E. Coughlin might have been a model for the U.S. Mussolini (p. 451). [Lewis had the Coughlin figure forming a paramilitary group called the MinuteMen with an MM armband that was clearly modeled on Coughlin’s Christian Front groups. Yet, Payne simply doesn’t think the extremists can organize sufficiently to gain enough power to control a government and impose a regime.

Although the similarities between a charismatic figure taking control of a semi-democratic government and encouraging paramilitary terrorism resonates well with the current climate in the U.S. and those similarities were what drew me to A History of Fascism: 1914-1945, this isn’t Payne’s purpose. He is more circumspectly academic (and at times, sterile) in viewing the history of and prospects for future fascist regimes. So, naturally, it is his study of what happened rather than what might happen that is most valuable in this volume. I fervently appreciate his insistence that there is no rigorous fascist model for the birth and growth of the phenomenon because there are too many national specificities to reduce the incubatory factors to a formula. The closest he comes to being able to do that is in the chapter on a retrodictive theory of fascism, nicely summarized in a chart of cultural, political, social, economic, and international factors (p. 489). Payne does note, however, that one should not naively look for all of the factors to exist in a given fascist movement, merely a majority of the factors will be helpful in looking at these phenomena (p. 488).

Much of what Payne introduces is common knowledge such as the importance of violence in establishing a fascist movement (p. 28), but he also implicitly explains some of the Nazi fascination with the occult by citing the fin de siècle rise of occult interest (p. 32), coinciding with ennui within the middle classes (p. 33) and the so-called le culte du moi (p. 40) and Innerlichkeit (“inwardness”) in German thought, art, and political movements (p. 72).

Indeed, I learned about Ariosophy, an occult philosophy from that era which had tremendous influence on Hitler (pp. 58-59). In addition, I knew about the significance of cultural heritage and folklore in the Italian and German experiences, but hadn’t realized until reading this book that there was a völkisch element to almost all fascist movements (p. 52). It is intriguing to me how rejection of morality in Italy (p. 64) and spiritual subjectivity in Germany (p. 72) served as an incubator for the superficial mysticism found in many expressions of fascism.

Frankly, I was intrigued by quotations, citations, and observations like: “Fascism is capitalistic rationalism turned on itself” (p. 179), “Unser Wille werde Gesetz” (“Our will becomes law”—p. 250), “Falangism seemed so fastidious, rhetorical, and averse to direct action that rightist critics labeled it ‘franciscanism” rather than fascism.” (p. 263), and the 1924 description of Fascism and Bolshevism as “brothers in the spirit of violence,” as well as “left Fascism” for Communism and “right Bolshevism” for Fascism (p. 447). And, as I had hoped, there were many historical tidbits hitherto unknown to me (e.g. Hitler’s refusal to cede North Africa to Spain because of considerations to Vichy France and Italy – p 432).

My only real disappointment with the book (and this may be a result of Payne’s probable usage of the book as a textbook or parallel reading assignment at the university) is that there weren’t as many narrative anecdotes as one would have expected in such a large tome. I kept expecting a major section of anecdotes from various perspectives, but Payne stuck to the facts. I would give this book a four-star rating as a textbook or parallel reading assignment, but as a personal reading project, I really missed more human interest stories to balance the avalanche of, admittedly sometimes fascinating, data assembled in this volume.