Cover art for Fascism
Published
University Of Chicago Press, November 2025
ISBN
9780226841328
Format
Softcover, 448 pages
Dimensions
22.9cm × 15.2cm × 2.5cm

Fascism The History of a Word

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A wide-ranging history of the term "fascism," what it has meant, and what it means today.

The rise of political figures like the United States' Donald Trump, Hungary's Viktor Orban, Italy's Giorgia Meloni, and Argentina's Javier Milei has spurred debates over the meaning of the term "fascist" and when and whether it is appropriate to use it. The landmark study Fascism: The History of a Word takes this debate further by tackling its most fundamental questions: How did the terms "fascism" and "fascist" come to be in the first place? How and in what circumstances have they been used? How can they be understood today? And what are the advantages (or disadvantages) of using "fascism" to make sense of interwar authoritarianism as well as contemporary politics?

Exploring the writings and deeds of political leaders, activists, artists, authors, and philosophers, Federico Marcon traces the history of the term's use (and usefulness) in relation to Mussolini's political regime, antifascist resistance, and the quest of postwar historians to develop a definition of a "fascist minimum." This investigation of the semiotics of "fascism" also aims to inquire about people's voluntary renunciation of the modern emancipatory ideals of freedom, equality, and solidarity.

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