Anatomy of Fascism, The

What is fascism? The historian Robert O. Paxton answers this question for the first time by focusing on the concrete: what the fascists did, rather than what they said. From the first violent uniformed bands beating up "enemies of the sate," through Mussolini's rise to power, to Germany's fascist radicalization in WWII, Paxton shows clearly why fascists came to power in some countries and not others, and explores whether fascism could exist outside the early-twentieth-century European setting in which it emerged, answering that yes, it can.