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kawooreads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
slow-paced
3.0
It took me four months to read this book. It is an incredibly in-depth social analysis of the rise of fascism in Europe. And when I say "in-depth", I'm talking about pages of seemingly irrelevant data that pieces together the ideology of fascism, the who, what, when, where, and why. The information, although fascinating, was extremely difficult for me to process at times, because it is so incredibly researched. This is definitely an academic text from which others can build a foundation for their own research on. That being said, I do not recommend this to the average person looking to broaden their understanding on the topic, as the writing style and choice of terminology can be challenging. The author states at the beginning that this book is strictly about how fascists were able to come into power, and his next book would be about what they did with that power. He then goes on to state on almost every single page of this 400pg book that "more will be explained in my forthcoming book". It was annoying, to say the least. All in all, I feel there are probably better books out there on fascism, at least that are more accessible to a wider audience, written in terms easier for people to understand. In the United States today there is plenty of political discourse on fascism, yet most have no idea what they are talking about. Things I have learned about fascism and have related to present U.S.A: Fascism was able to rise into a movement because people did not take it seriously in the beginning, and that people can be influenced towards authoritarianism and Fascism when they feel threatened by modernity (change). Sounds about right.
redbecca's review against another edition
4.0
An important and useful work synthesizing decades worth of scholarship about fascism in Europe. Mann comes to some original and surprising conclusions challenging a number of previous theories of fascist political development. The book's strengths include the exceptionally well-documented analysis of the class basis of multiple European fascist parties; the discussion of religion's relationship to fascist ideology and voting patterns; the analysis of youth movements, age-cohorts and paramilitary participation; and the overview of large geographic patterns for the growth of fascist parties. This work is also valuable because of the inclusion of Austrian, Romanian and Hungarian fascisms and comparison of these with the more frequently discussed Italian, German and Spanish movements and regimes.
redbecca's review
4.0
An important and useful work synthesizing decades worth of scholarship about fascism in Europe. Mann comes to some original and surprising conclusions challenging a number of previous theories of fascist political development. The book's strengths include the exceptionally well-documented analysis of the class basis of multiple European fascist parties; the discussion of religion's relationship to fascist ideology and voting patterns; the analysis of youth movements, age-cohorts and paramilitary participation; and the overview of large geographic patterns for the growth of fascist parties. This work is also valuable because of the inclusion of Austrian, Romanian and Hungarian fascisms and comparison of these with the more frequently discussed Italian, German and Spanish movements and regimes.
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