Three Faces of Fascism

Three Faces of Fascism: Action Francaise, Italian Fascism, National Socialism by Ernst Nolte, translated by Leila Vennewitz, 462 pages

Almost as soon as Mussolini coined the term in 1919, "fascism" began to be used as a slur, and the widely divergent views of those who have claimed the label have generated almost as much confusion as those who have stuck the label on others.  This has led some to question whether a coherent ideology that can be called "fascism" exists beyond whatever happens to be necessary to justify the leader's will to power, a view grounded in Mussolini's famous exaltation of action over thought and bolstered by the tendency since 1945 of considering fascism primarily as a subset of totalitarianism.  Nonetheless, as Ernst Nolte carefully explicates in this seminal study, twentieth century fascism has unique characteristics which definitively separate it from both more traditional forms of reaction and Marxism.

As Nolte understands it, fascism is identifiable by its denial of the possibility of a future world free from sin and injustice, a denial he alternately describes as "resistance to transcendence" and "hostility to history".  This not only places fascism in direct opposition both to traditional religion and various forms of socialism, it contributes to a worldview which imagines history as a ceaseless struggle without end or ultimate meaning.  Yet the salvific promises of fascism become progressively evident throughout his study - embryonically in Maurras' secularized Catholicism, haltingly in Mussolini's braggadaccio, fully in Hitler's megalomania.  His argument is further undercut by a certain amount of special pleading, as when he dismisses the lack of terror in fascist Italy with the claim that the black shirt terrorism accompanying Mussolini's rise sufficed for the duration of his reign.  If these flaws diminish the value of Nolte's conclusions, however, they do not affect the depth and thoroughness of his examination of the intellectual roots and branches of fascist politics.