The Spectre of the 1930s

Abstract

How might we come to terms with the rise of authoritarianism not just in the United States and Europe but also in the Global South, in Turkey, Brazil, India, Egypt, among others? Is it helpful to think of this phenomenon in terms of the return of “fascism”? In order to provide a provisional answer to these questions, this chapter sketches an account of the rise and consolidation fascism in the 1930s and then, against this picture, assesses in what sense we can be said to confront fascism in the twenty-first century. Rather than being too hasty to assert that we are simply repeating and reliving the moment of Weimar, it is important to grasp both key discontinuities as well as continuities between that historical experience and our own conjuncture.

This chapter was originally presented at Historical Materialism London, 2018, at Johan Hartle’s Seminar at the Hochschule für Gestaltung, and King’s College London. The author wishes to thank the participants in these settings for their comments and challenging questions including Joseph Baines, Susan Falls, Johan Hartle, Andreas Malme, Jaleh Mansoor, Julia Nichols, Jeremy Rayner and Ingo Schmidt. A revised version of it serves as the Introduction to Spectres of Fascism: Historical, Theoretical and Contemporary Perspectives, edited by Samir Gandesha (London: Pluto Press, 2020)