The Fascist Tradition Introduction

by Hayden V. White

What is the "true" nature of fascism: is it something radically new to political experience, a unique creation of the twentieth century; or is it merely old tyranny possessed of new, more efficient techniques for gaining and holding power? Historians, sociologists, social psychologists, and political theorists have been debating this question since Mussolini's seizure of power in 1922. Thus far, however, with limited success. On the whole, we have not arrived at any general consensus over the nature and causes of fascism in our time.

The reasons for our disagreements are easy to discern. They lie in the ideological differences which seperate the radical from the conservative in the political arena and in the bad conscience which many present-day liberals feel for their failure to anticipate the advent of fascism and to oppose it effectively once it had made its appearance in the 1920's and 1930's.

For the conventional liberal, with his late nineteenth century notions of human nature, society and the historical process, the triumph of fascism in Italy and Germany seemed to refute many of his most cherished preconceptions. It certainly dashed many of his fondest hopes for future of Western civilization. After all, fascism had succeeded, not in the backward and underdeveloped areas of the world, but in two of the most advanced nations of Western Europe. Italy and Germany had made lasting contributions to Western civilization in its modern form: Italy by the Renaissance, Germany by the Reformation. Their national cultural traditions stood for two of the West's most highly prized ideals: that of freedom of religious conscience and that of the dignity of man. Moreover, although their development into "modern" nations had been slow, by the end of the nineteenth century, both Italy and Germany had given every evidence of being able to transform themselves into "enlightened" social systems...This being proven under Hitler's reign. The seperation of the people and the state was what Hitler had longed for, and cost millions of lives...