Matthew Feldman, a specialist on fascist ideology, looks at how the radical right has changed over time. Q. As someone who has examined the history of radical right movements, how similar is the current political environment to the situation in the 1920s and 30s? Very dissimilar at first glance. There are few fully-fledged fascist movements today, and certainly not those capable of seizing… Continue reading “The Evolution of the Radical Right: An Interview with Matthew Feldman”
Recently, Dr. Louie Dean Valencia-Garcia addressed the ethical challenge researchers face when purchasing extremist materials. In buying books from publishers, subscribing to podcasts, or paying for membership in web forums, researchers are indeed helping to fund these extremist projects. While that support may be small, Valencia-Garcia points out, its ethical implications must be reckoned with.… Continue reading “Examining ethical practicalities raised by Valencia-Garcia’s “The Ethics of Consuming Fascism””
In a fascinating CARR Insights Blog last year, Cynthia Miller-Idriss and Daisy Gebbia-Richards argued that ‘love drives extremism’ because the close communities provided by extremist organisations meet activists’ need ‘for human connection, togetherness, belonging and love’. This was certainly true for fascists in interwar Romania, which is my area of expertise. Despite some periods of… Continue reading “Love in a Romanian Fascist Movement”
On November 27 2018, a panel discussion was organized at the Centre for Humanistic Inquiry (CHI), Amherst College, USA with the participation of Maria Alexandrovna Sidorkina, Chip Berlet, Tamir Bar-On and Dwaipayan Sen. After a few words of welcome by CHI director Martha Umphrey, organizer and discussant Andreas Önnerfors, Associate Professor in Intellectual History at… Continue reading “CONFERENCE REPORT – THE GLOBAL RISE OF NATIVISM AND ILLIBERALISM – A CONVERSATION ON THE CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL PATHOLOGY”
When leaders of the National Legionary State celebrated Christmas in 1940, it was with a feeling of exuberation and victory. Since it was founded in 1927, the fascist Legion of the Archangel Michael had suffered frequent government persecution and prominent legionaries had spent the past two Christmases in prison or exile. Their ‘Captain’, Corneliu Zelea… Continue reading “A Fascist Christmas: Romania 1940”
Newly elected Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s narrative is one that lends itself to creating what historians of dictatorship have called a ‘cult of personality’. One of his supporters recently told The Nation, reiterating claims now surrounding Bolsonaro: ‘He is the messiah! He was knifed, but rather than stay at home or lie on the beach,… Continue reading “Is He a Fascist? The Election of Jair Bolsonaro”
Roger Griffin, Fascism: An Introduction to Comparative Fascist Studies (Cambridge: Polity, 2018) £14.99 paperback and ebook, £45.00 hardback What is ‘fascism’? This question has driven the work of Professor Roger Griffin throughout his influential academic career. In books, journal article and at conferences, Griffin has spent a lifetime discussing and debating how fascism should be… Continue reading “Book Review: Roger Griffin (2018) Fascism – An Introduction to Comparative Fascist Studies”
The alt-right has been perhaps the most successful rebranding of fascist ideology since the Axis dénouement of 1945. Fascism has been a vexatious term for almost as long as fascist movements have existed, historically resistant to definition and typically now used as either an insult or political hyperbole. Yet the utility of the term as… Continue reading ““Just Joking” Is No Joke: How the alt-right really communicates online”
In my previous blog, I made three key points: 1) Islamists are neglected when we consider the contemporary radical right; 2) Islamists, like Christian fundamentalists, may qualify as right-wing extremists; and 3) By neglecting Islamists, we underestimate their serious influence (and lethality), while potentially overestimating the impact of radical right ideologues, movements, and political parties. How… Continue reading “When Interpreting Fascism and Islamism, How ‘Progressive’ are ‘Progressive’ Intellectuals?”
Two Latin scholars made unusual headlines in summer 2016. Hans Lamers and Bettina Reitz-Joosse had just published The Codex Fori Mussolini: A Latin Text of Italian Fascism: a translation and extended annotation of the 1,220-word Latin inscription praising ‘the Boss’. Reconstructed from several Roman libraries, the original text remains at the bottom of a 300-tonne modernist… Continue reading “Book Review: Catherine Paul’s (2016) ‘Fascist Directive: Ezra Pound and Italian Cultural Nationalism’ – June 2018”