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A conservative take on the antifascist movement Antifascism argues that current self-described antifascists are not struggling against a reappearance of interwar fascism, and that the Left that claims to be opposing fascism has little in common with any earlier Left, except for some overlap with critical theorists of the Frankfurt School. Paul Gottfried looks at antifascism from its roots in early twentieth-century Europe to its American manifestation in the present. The pivotal development for defining the present political spectrum, he suggests, has been the replacement of a recognizably Marxist Left by an intersectional one. Political and ideological struggles have been configured around this new Left, which has become a dominant force throughout the Western world. Gottfried discusses the major changes undergone by antifascist ideology since the 1960s, fascist and antifascist models of the state and assumptions about human nature, nationalism versus globalism, the antifascism of the American conservative establishment, and Antifa in the United States. Also included is an excursus on the theory of knowledge presented by Thomas Hobbes in Leviathan . In Antifascism Gottfried concludes that promoting a fear of fascism today serves the interests of the powerful-in particular, those in positions of political, journalistic, and educational power who want to bully and isolate political opponents. He points out the generous support given to the intersectional Left by multinational capitalists and examines the movement of the white working class in Europe-including former members of Communist parties-toward the populist Right, suggesting this shows a political dynamic that is different from the older dialectic between Marxists and anti-Marxists.

Chapter six delves into the world of superheroes and cinema in Brazil. In the last two decades, comics and graphic novels have grown in popularity and have made inroads into cultural venues beyond the publishing realm. The film industry took particular notice of this trend. This chapter discusses Gustavo Bonafé’s 2018 film O Doutrinador, based on Marcelo Yuka and Luciano Cunha’s 2015 homonymous graphic novel. The film is part of an ever-expanding body of “superhero films” that are ubiquitous internationally at the twenty-first century cineplex. O Doutrinador brings the superhero to the context of 2018 Brazil, the presidential elections, and the inauguration of Jair Bolsonaro. Employing the superhero genre and growing comic book fandom, this chapter argues that O Doutrinador posits neo-authoritarian masculinity and the justiceiro Doutrinador as the heroic figure of the Brazilian society and as society’s only answer to current social and political upheaval. In doing this, the film ultimately contributes to the country’s slide to the right politically by constructing this savior figure with parallels to the rise of proto-fascist leaders, or as Marcia Tuburi has denominated them Turbotechnomachofascistas (2020), such as Jair Bolsonaro, both in Brazil and internationally.

In 1949, Romania's fledgling communist regime unleashed a radical and brutal campaign to collectivize agriculture in this largely agrarian country, following the Soviet model. Peasants under Siege provides the first comprehensive look at the far-reaching social engineering process that ensued. Gail Kligman and Katherine Verdery examine how collectivization assaulted the very foundations of rural life, transforming village communities that were organized around kinship and status hierarchies into segments of large bureaucratic organizations, forged by the language of \"class warfare\" yet saturated with vindictive personal struggles.

Frank Böckelmann, a onetime Marxist theorist, has expressed both shock and wonder at how his fellow Germans obsess over Nazi dangers, doing so with ever more intensity the more the twelve years of Hitler’s rule recede in the past. Every church or school gathering, academic conference, and book fair in Germany now routinely rails against fascism and Nazism. Meanwhile the German government has poured many hundreds of millions of dollars into various enterprises intended to “fight fascism.” For instance, a gathering of German historians at Munster in 2018 was devoted to finding new ways to combat a supposedly ubiquitous Right.

The new edition of this award-winning biography contains fresh insights into one of history's most intriguing figures. By emphasizing the impact of political and social upheaval in shaping Mussolini's image, Bosworth skillfully juxtaposes his subject's renowned brutality against his inner compassion. Mussolini never fails to grip.

Our common sense tells us that leaders & their decisions matter, but our social science theories tell us that constraints determine major societal outcomes. Concerned about this disconnect, Seymour Martin Lipset has suggested that the consolidation of American democracy would have been impossible had George Washington not consciously & judiciously deployed his charisma to mobilize support for the new republic at its most fragile moment. Following Weber, Professor Lipset uses Washington's success to argue that charismatic leaders can play an \"indispensable\" role in consolidating fledgling democracies. In particular, by inspiring trust, Washington helped the US form its identity & institutionalize its competitive electoral system. Professor Lipset codes this as a victory for agency, reminding us that individuals can be important independent variables. He exposes how much we have to gain by exploring the space for leaders & for the strategic, tactical, & moral choices they make -- or fail to make. In this paper, I take the next logical step & examine leaders who fail to consolidate democracy in order to identify which tools they were missing -- & which ones their fascist successors deployed. By applying Lipset's idea to the seamier side of Japanese & Italian political history, I show how the consolidation of fascism was both the product of failed leaders & the success of those who (ironically, like Washington) understood how to recombine shards of the past into a novel, functional, & resilient present. I will suggest further that this sort of bricolage can be as useful as charisma in the battle for power in weakly institutionalized polities. 41 References. Adapted from the source document.

Pius xi (1922–1939) has been described as the pope of the missions, of social and catholic action, of technological innovation and modern mass communications, of concordats and of reconciliation. This Pope, like his immediate predecessors, appreciated the advantages of adjusting the Church’s relations with the civil authorities by means of concordats in which the Church surrendered incidentals to preserve essentials. Approval of such agreements represented a compromise on the part of the Church with governments that did not fully recognize its claim to independence. Pius VII (1800–1823), in concluding a concordat with Napoleon, followed Rome’s policy of dealing