A conservative take on the antifascist
movement
Antifascism argues that
current self-described antifascists are not struggling against a
reappearance of interwar fascism, and that the Left that ...claims to
be opposing fascism has little in common with any earlier Left,
except for some overlap with critical theorists of the Frankfurt
School. Paul Gottfried looks at antifascism from its roots
in early twentieth-century Europe to its American manifestation in
the present. The pivotal development for defining the present
political spectrum, he suggests, has been the replacement of a
recognizably Marxist Left by an intersectional one. Political and
ideological struggles have been configured around this new Left,
which has become a dominant force throughout the Western world.
Gottfried discusses the major changes undergone by antifascist
ideology since the 1960s, fascist and antifascist models of the
state and assumptions about human nature, nationalism versus
globalism, the antifascism of the American conservative
establishment, and Antifa in the United States. Also included is an
excursus on the theory of knowledge presented by Thomas Hobbes in
Leviathan .
In Antifascism Gottfried concludes that promoting a
fear of fascism today serves the interests of the powerful-in
particular, those in positions of political, journalistic, and
educational power who want to bully and isolate political
opponents. He points out the generous support given to the
intersectional Left by multinational capitalists and examines the
movement of the white working class in Europe-including former
members of Communist parties-toward the populist Right, suggesting
this shows a political dynamic that is different from the older
dialectic between Marxists and anti-Marxists.
The increasing radicalization of political life in most countries in Europe lends special relevance to studies of the antifascist legacies on the continent. This insightful collection of essays is an ...in-depth review of antifascism in Slovenia, setting it in the context of related movements elsewhere in Europe. The period treated by the 19 essays comprises the interwar period, World War Two, and the post-war decades. The comparative and transnational perspectives advanced by the volume change our understanding of antifascism. The essays deal with the right-wing but also left-wing instrumentalization of antifascism, with a particular focus on the communist and post-communist periods. The authors point out that antifascism comes in various strains, whether inspired by liberalism, social democracy, communism, monarchism, anarchism, or even Christian conservatism. The contributors bring to light several overlooked antifascist actors, campaigns, and organisations, mostly in Slovenia and the Adriatic area.
The increasing radicalization of political life in most countries in Europe lends special relevance to studies of the antifascist legacies on the continent. This insightful collection of essays is an ...in-depth review of antifascism in Slovenia, setting it in the context of related movements elsewhere in Europe. The period treated by the 19 essays comprises the interwar period, World War Two, and the post-war decades. The comparative and transnational perspectives advanced by the volume change our understanding of antifascism. The essays deal with the right-wing but also left-wing instrumentalization of antifascism, with a particular focus on the communist and post-communist periods. The authors point out that antifascism comes in various strains, whether inspired by liberalism, social democracy, communism, monarchism, anarchism, or even Christian conservatism. The contributors bring to light several overlooked antifascist actors, campaigns, and organisations, mostly in Slovenia and the Adriatic area.
Davor Konjikušić provides an in-depth presentation and contextualization of the photographs created by Yugoslav partisans between 1941 and 1945. In doing so, the author is not only interested in ...presenting the photographs from an aesthetic perspective, but in the history of their use and function within one of the biggest anti-fascist movements in Europe during the Second World War.
The second of three volumes by Alan Wald that track the political and personal lives of several generations of U.S. left-wing writers,Trinity of Passioncarries forward the chronicle launched inExiles ...from a Future Time: The Forging of the Mid-Twentieth-Century Literary Left. In this volume Wald delves into literary, emotional, and ideological trajectories of radical cultural workers in the era when the International Brigades fought in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) and the United States battled in World War II (1941-45). Probing in rich and haunting detail the controversial impact of the Popular Front on literary culture, he explores the ethical and aesthetic challenges that pro-Communist writers faced.Wald presents a cross section of literary talent, from the famous to the forgotten, the major to the minor. The writers examined include Len Zinberg (a.k.a. Ed Lacy), John Oliver Killens, Irwin Shaw, Albert Maltz, Ann Petry, Chester Himes, Henry Roth, Lauren Gilfillan, Ruth McKenney, Morris U. Schappes, and Jo Sinclair. He also uncovers dramatic new information about Arthur Miller's complex commitment to the Left.Confronting heartfelt questions about Jewish masculinity, racism at the core of liberal democracy, the corrosion of utopian dreams, and the thorny interaction between antifascism and Communism, Wald re-creates the intellectual and cultural landscape of a remarkable era.
