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| |  | Health & Personal Care | Home » » Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning | | | | | | | Description: | | “Fascists,” “Brownshirts,” “jackbooted stormtroopers”—such are the insults typically hurled at conservatives by their liberal opponents. Calling someone a fascist is the fastest way to shut them up, defining their views as beyond the political pale. But who are the real fascists in our midst?
Liberal Fascism offers a startling new perspective on the theories and practices that define fascist politics. Replacing conveniently manufactured myths with surprising and enlightening research, Jonah Goldberg reminds us that the original fascists were really on the left, and that liberals from Woodrow Wilson to FDR to Hillary Clinton have advocated policies and principles remarkably similar to those of Hitler's National Socialism and Mussolini's Fascism.
Contrary to what most people think, the Nazis were ardent socialists (hence the term “National socialism”). They believed in free health care and guaranteed jobs. They confiscated inherited wealth and spent vast sums on public education. They purged the church from public policy, promoted a new form of pagan spirituality, and inserted the authority of the state into every nook and cranny of daily life. The Nazis declared war on smoking, supported abortion, euthanasia, and gun control. They loathed the free market, provided generous pensions for the elderly, and maintained a strict racial quota system in their universities—where campus speech codes were all the rage. The Nazis led the world in organic farming and alternative medicine. Hitler was a strict vegetarian, and Himmler was an animal rights activist.
Do these striking parallels mean that today’s liberals are genocidal maniacs, intent on conquering the world and imposing a new racial order? Not at all. Yet it is hard to deny that modern progressivism and classical fascism shared the same intellectual roots. We often forget, for example, that Mussolini and Hitler had many admirers in the United States. W.E.B. Du Bois was inspired by Hitler's Germany, and Irving Berlin praised Mussolini in song. Many fascist tenets were espoused by American progressives like John Dewey and Woodrow Wilson, and FDR incorporated fascist policies in the New Deal.
Fascism was an international movement that appeared in different forms in different countries, depending on the vagaries of national culture and temperament. In Germany, fascism appeared as genocidal racist nationalism. In America, it took a “friendlier,” more liberal form. The modern heirs of this “friendly fascist” tradition include the New York Times, the Democratic Party, the Ivy League professoriate, and the liberals of Hollywood. The quintessential Liberal Fascist isn't an SS storm trooper; it is a female grade school teacher with an education degree from Brown or Swarthmore.
These assertions may sound strange to modern ears, but that is because we have forgotten what fascism is. In this angry, funny, smart, contentious book, Jonah Goldberg turns our preconceptions inside out and shows us the true meaning of Liberal Fascism. | | | Features: | |
• ISBN13: 9780385511841
• Condition: New
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| | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Jonah Goldberg | | Hardcover:
| 496 pages | | Publisher:
| Doubleday | | Publication Date:
| January 08, 2008 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 0385511841 | | Package Length:
| 9.3 inches | | Package Width:
| 6.1 inches | | Package Height:
| 1.7 inches | | Package Weight:
| 1.65 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 541 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
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 Promises kept and promises not kept.Jul 24, 2010
If you are thinking of reading or purchasing this volume, it is important to know what information the volume contains which is accurate and important and what arguments it contains which are merely ideological pablum for the ignorant.
First of all, the volume would more accurately be retitled: Fascism: How To Use A "Bad Word," a word That THEY have been tarring US with, against THEM.
Secondly, the author does have a fairly accurate view of what constitutes fascism. That is probably the only real merit of this book, and if you cannot gleen that information from some other sources, here it is.
Thirdly, the author has abaolutely no interest in seriously considering the links between the founding personalities and doctrines of contemporary "conservatism" and fascism. Everytime he even approaches that topic it is with two excuses: (1) YOU are as bad as WE are and (2) There have been other extensive studies of such things [none of which I'm going to cite to you]. In the latter respect he resembles the ACLU's attitude toward the Second Amendment.
Fourth, the author's thesis that many of the founders of modern collectivist liberalism have been fascists or proto-fascists is correct. But instead of approaching that theme on the basis of an examination of ideological premises and doctrines, his approach is one all too familiar to viewers of Fox News. His interest is in tarring otherwise respected historical and contemporary individuals, and in only superficially examining their views. In this quest guilt by association is widely used. Emma Goldman, for instance, was a "eugenticist," who he has just told us, were principally in favor of aborting Black babies.
I would like to be impressed by this volume for the second point stated above. Fascism is not, as we are sometimes advised on the internet, irrelevant or merely a tar word. It was and is a very real presence across the present ideological spectrum. It is more of a presence everyday as hysterical appeals to the ignorant become more and more prevalent. It is difficult, however, to determine whether this volume is ultimately intended to clarify the nature, doctrines and danger of fascism or add to the confusion about it. Without reading it another several times, I would have to vote for the latter as the predominate impression received from a first read.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 A Revision to Revisionist HistoryJul 17, 2010
Without hyperbole, LIBERAL FASCISM is one of the more important books on political theory to come out in a long time. It ranks up there, again without hyperbole, with some of the better works (not the average ones, but the better ones) of Thomas Sowell, and constitutes the best understanding of how totalitarian ideas enter society on the backs of the well-intentioned since the writings of Hayek. Yes, it is that good.
Tell a lie enough times and people believe it. That fascism is a movement of the Right has been repeated so often and so reflexively that it simply constitutes assumed knowledge, the type of idea that is so clearly true that there is no need to discuss it. We simply take it as true and then continue with whatever conversation we are having that might touch upon fascism. As Jonah Goldberg demonstrates, however, this is a very false history.
That the American interpretation and experience of Leftism shares common intellectual and ideological roots with those European ideas that coalesced into fascism may seem counterintuitive to us after decades of obfuscation. Yet such a commonality of ideas did not seem odd at all, either to those Leftists in America or those in Europe, when those ideas were actually taking shape and being used to implement social change in the name of progress. Although fascism was always controversial, it was not until its name really got dragged through the mud, primarily due to Hitler and the Holocaust, that fascism started being `reinterpreted' as right wing. Yet such an interpretation is false. And despite fascism's bad name, many of our current policies and even assumed ideas, are directly traceable to the fascism of the Left.
Goldberg goes deep, right to the actual ideas themselves, what those ideas were meant to achieve, and how those ideas were implemented into policy, to demonstrate that fascism was, and primarily still is, a movement of the Left. Particularly illuminating is Goldberg's exposition of the verbal and rhetorical tactics used by fascists to bypass meaningful debate and marginalize their opponents, as such tactics are still in wide use today. Fascists themselves are never ideological but are "beyond ideology;" they are pragmatic, without concern as to where an idea comes from but instead only concerned "with whether it works;" and want to move "beyond politics" in order to actually "do something." Anyone who is familiar with modern Americans of the Left and Right will notice the continuation of this trend: Those on the Right recognize that they are on the Right even if it is only a slight tilt off-center; those on the Left, however, believe they are moderate, even if they are so far to the Left as to constitute an intellectual freak show. (My Leftist friends would call me an extremist for voting for Republican presidential candidates who actually win elections - thereby demonstrating that they are not far from the mainstream - while considering themselves moderates for supporting Ralph Nader or some Green Party nobody who was able to pull in maybe 3% of the vote)
It would be nice to refer to this book as one of history. But, by one of those 'wonderful' coincidences life sometimes gives us, right as the book was going to print, the themes contained here came right to the foreground. A political leader shot right into public view with basically every single trope used by fascists to elevate themselves to power. Although not in the hardback edition, Goldberg adds an afterward to the paperback on the fascist themes paramount in the rise of Obama, and how he and his supporters fit the American interpretation of fascism almost to a T. Rarely has a book been so unintentionally prescient.
LIBERAL FASCISM is too significant a book to be given justice in any single review here on amazon. Goldberg has achieved something very significant with this book. He has changed the terms of the debate. Given the frequency and consistency that those on the Left call those on the Right fascist simply for holding different opinions, that alone would be enough. That the fascist impulse is still alive, well and going strong, the understanding of the ideas underlying the trend towards fascism are still, unfortunately, deeply relevant today.
1 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 NOT A SURPRISEJul 05, 2010
The book is very well documented but it is hardly surprising for anyone who has read "Road to Serfdom" by Friedrich Hayek or "The vision of the anointed" by Thomas Sowell. If someone is writing a doctoral thesis, this book is very interesting due to its very valuable references. If the reason to buy it is simply a better understanding of politics and social dynamics, any of the two mentioned books could be a better option.
By the way, it is very easy finding reviews of this book that, trying to be destructive, make fully clear the main point of the author. While trying to criticize it, many people certify its truth with a behavior fully adapted to the description of the book.
Since the author uses many references from Europe, it should be interesting emphasizing that the term "liberal" itself has a meaning almost opposite at every side of Atlantic Ocean. Liberal, in Europe, is someone who is near to people like Hayek, Sowell, Revel or even Popper. Liberal, in the U.S., is another word for socialist. It is difficult to be more different and the contents of the book deserve a clarification of this point.
1 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Wealth Of MaterialJul 02, 2010
At first I approached Jonah Goldberg's book with some wariness. I knew fascism is a term that has been used in so many ways as to make the term seem meaningless. But Mr. Goldberg is a very engaging writer so I decided read the book to its end. In fact Mr. Goldberg has written a very well written and informative historical work.
Mr. Goldberg defines fascism as a quasi religious movement of "emotional or instinctual impulses, such as the quest for community, the urge to `go beyond' politics, a faith in the perfectibility of man and the authority of experts, and an obsession with the aesthetics of youth, the cult of action, and the need for an all powerful state to coordinate society at the national or global level" (p. 14-15). Mr. Goldberg considers fascism as utopian and believing there are few areas of personal life outside the purview of the state. Thus fascism rejects the idea of natural rights enshrined in the American Declaration of Independence.
In contrast to popular belief fascism does not need to be racist or aggressive in foreign policy. Mr. Goldberg considers much of the early nineteenth century Progressive Movement and present day liberalism in America as leaning to fascism. He points out that Mussolini's Italy started out without any anti Semitism and stayed without such an ideology until World War II. The Nazi identity politics is not critical to fascism.
Mr. Goldberg provides a wealth of historical information about the statist "third way" movements of the Twentieth Century. He demonstrates how fascist tendencies reduced liberty in both America and Europe. He finds plenty of spots on the record of Woodrow Wilson who all too often a hero for historians.
This very well written thought provoking book is must for consideration. The astute reader may not agree with the thesis of Mr. Goldberg but his book should induce serious thought about politics and history. This work is worth examining.
2 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Learning from the Patterns of HistoryJun 25, 2010
The past is prelude to the present. The same Marxist-socialist strategies developed by Lenin and Trotsky and exported around the world were used by statists to create Italian socialism, Nazi socialism, Chinese socialism, and the march of socialism in dozens of Third World countries from WW2 until today. I was surprised to realize that American socialism owed more to the Mussolini model than it does to the Hitler-Nazi model. I was not surprised by the constant, consistent, and profound influence of the Soviet KGB in building levels upon levels of subsersive cells and front groups. More modern expressions of this true religion are found in the works of archetypical community organizer, Sal Alinsky, and those budding or experienced agitators in his orbit. The guidelines of how to destroy a democratic country by using its own democratic institutions against it are seen being used today in places like Venezuela, Nicaragua, Honduras, the stolen elections in Iran, and even here in the United States. Hillary Clinton wrote a fawning disseration of the glories of Alinsky for her masters degree. She evidently learned her evil "politics of personal destruction" from her socialist saint Sal. Obama is highly familiar with his work, and taught aspects of it to other would-be community agitators as an adjunct college professor. Every American should read this easy-to-digest history of the creeping, or perhaps we should say, charging socialism occurring around the world and in our own country, over decades of deception and lies, under cover of closed doors, secret meetings, bills that "have to be passed so we can see what's in them" (to quote Speaker Pelosi), the Orwellian "transparency" of the White House and its many czars of dubitable reputation and concealed backgrounds. Read Goldberg's book to become aware of the dangers around us. Another good book to read is "Blacklisted by History," by M. Stanton Evans, who details the historic infiltration of the U.S. government by Communists and Soviet spies during World War 2 and the early 1950's. It's time Americans learn to pay attention to those little men "behind the curtains." They are not wizards, but they can certainly perform the magic trick of making the audience think they're not really there (as with the profoundly effective destruction of Sen. Joe McCarthy, who turns out to have been right all along). As Jonah Goldberg warns us--the Left cares nothing for truth, human welfare, anyone's political rights, and least of all, for America's most precious founding documents and its sacred Constitution. They falsely swear their oaths of allegiance to it, but their actual approach is based on doing whatever is necessary to lie, cheat, and steal their way into power over the rest of us "unenlightened hicks" from the "flyover states." Read and heed Jonah Goldberg's warnings, before it is too late for America.
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