What is fascism? Is it revolutionary? Or is it reactionary? This book argues that it is both: fascism unleashes violence against the left and ethnic minorities, but also condemns the bourgeoisie for its "softness". Kevin Passmore opens his book with a series of "scenes from fascist life"--a secret meeting of the Romanian Iron Guard; Mussolini meeting the king of Italy; a rally of Hungarian doctors calling for restrictions on the number of Jews entering the profession. He then looks at the paradoxes of fascism through its origins in the political and social crisis of the late nineteenth century, the history of fascist movements and regimes in Italy and Germany, and the fortunes of "failed" fascist movements in Romania, Hungary and Spain. He shows how fascism employs propaganda and popular culture to propagate itself and how it exported its ideas outside Europe, through Nazi and Spanish post-war escape routes to Latin America. The book concludes with a discussion of the recent revival of the extreme right in Austria, Italy, France, and Russia.

什么是法西斯主义？它是革命的吗？还是反动的？本书认为它两者都是：法西斯主义对左派和少数民族释放暴力，但也谴责资产阶级的 "软弱"。凯文-帕斯莫尔以一系列 "法西斯生活场景 "开篇--罗马尼亚铁卫队的秘密会议；墨索里尼会见意大利国王；匈牙利医生集会呼吁限制进入该行业的犹太人数量。然后，他通过法西斯主义在19世纪末的政治和社会危机中的起源、意大利和德国的法西斯运动和政权的历史，以及罗马尼亚、匈牙利和西班牙的 "失败 "的法西斯运动的命运，探讨了法西斯主义的悖论。他展示了法西斯主义如何运用宣传和大众文化来宣传自己，以及如何通过纳粹和西班牙战后逃亡路线向欧洲之外的拉丁美洲输出其思想。本书最后讨论了最近极右翼在奥地利、意大利、法国和俄罗斯的复兴。