In this episode, we welcome Dr. Paul Gottfried to discuss his book Fascism: The Career of a Concept. Given the problem of definition and of historical ignorance that often colors modern political discourse, what even is (and is not) fascism? In other words, what is a “single, coherent account” of fascism, the definition of which is “historically and conceptually delimited”? Paul takes us into the history and contours of generic fascism, as well as the ideas and culture surrounding it. What was the general political spectrum in Europe of the interwar period, where was Fascism on that spectrum – and what was Fascism interacting with which determined its more precise meaning? We also ask Dr. Gottfried some questions about Right and Left, why Fascism only seemed to grow in historically Latin Catholic countries, whether Fascism is a Christian heresy - and whether the Reformation was a left phenomenon. 

Book: Fascism: The Career of a Concept 

Check out: Chronicles (especially the print magazine) 

• E.g.: “Three Conceptions of Conservatism” by Paul Gottfried 

Other books and articles by Dr. Gottfried: 

Multiculturalism and the Politics of Guilt  

Antifascism: A Course of a Crusade 

The Strange Death of Marxism: The European Left in the New Millennium 

Revisions and Dissents: Essays 

             - See especially the chapter: “Defining Right and Left” 

After Liberalism: Mass Democracy in the Managerial State 

• “Don’t Blame Fascism” 
• “Who Isn’t Fascist?” 

Recent media example of the relevance and importance of this subject: here

Other resources: 

Fascism: Comparison and Definition; A History of Fascism, 1914-1945; Franco: A Personal and Political Biography by Stanley G. Payne 

Political Religions; The New Science of Politics; Science, Politics and Gnosticism by Eric Voeglin 

“’It Can’t Happen Here’: Right-Wing Extremism in Pennsylvania, 1933-1942" by Philip Jenkins 

“God Does Not Exist” by Benito Mussolini