Fascism
H35/EUST72
Prof. López
Spring 2011
T Th 10-11:20am
Office: 23 Chapin, x5846
This course addresses the vexing questions of what fascism is, whether it was a global phenomenon, and whether it has been
historically banished. The semester begins with a consideration of conceptual issues related to nationalism, modernity, and fascism.
Next we will address case studies, noting comparative continuities and regional peculiarities. The countries that will receive the most
attention are Argentina, Brazil, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Mexico and Spain with additional attention to Australia, Chile, China,
Japan, New Guinea, Palestine Portugal and Turkey. The course will close with an examination of women as agents of this radical
ideology, links between fascism and environmentalism in Germany, and the applicability of the term “fascism” to contemporary
movements in the Middle East. Two meetings per week.
In addition to introducing students to the historical debates surrounding fascism, this course uses guided readings, discussions,
and frequent writing to help each student discover and pursue his or her own intellectual interests. Each student is expected to
gradually identify for herself or himself the concerns that she or he finds most interesting, and to work through the dimensions of
those issues. This is to be done through class discussions, conversations during office hours, journal writing, and the final project.
Additionally, the course emphasizes how to formulate productive critical questions, how to draft concise analytical summations of the
issues raised by texts, and how to devise your own intellectual inquiry and push along the avenues that you find most fascinating
toward novel insights.
Updated Tuesday, January 11, 2011
H35/EUST72, p2
Books available at Food for Thought Books, downtown Amherst across from Starbucks):
 Aristotle Kallis, Fascist Reader (NY: Routledge, 2003)
 Richard Griffiths, An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Fascism (Duckworth Publishers, 2001)
 Federico Finchelstein, Transatlantic Fascism: Ideology, Violence, and the Sacred in Argentina and Italy, 1919-1945 (Duke UP, 2010)
Coursepack available in history office in the basement of Chapin Hall
E-reserves available through your online portal.
Reading: Be an engaged, critical reader. Don’t absorb the text, argue with it. See “Getting to Know a History Book” on my website.
Map quiz: There will be a map quiz in which you will have to draw and label countries, cities, and regions on blank maps. The places you need to
know are listed on the final page of this syllabus.
Writing:
 Analytical journal, submitted in four installments. It will consist of the following:
o A brief critical abstract of each reading (written in advance of each meeting, and revised after the meeting). In 3-5 sentences state
the subject of the book or article, what the authors is trying to work out through his or her discussion of that subject, how he or she
went about it, what sources her or she used and how he or she used them, what he or she argued, and what is at stake in his or her
argument or interpretation.
o Two critical/analytical questions for each meeting (NOT discussion prompts!) (written in advance of each meeting, and revised
after the meeting). These can focus on issues you did not understand fully or that you found puzzling or contradictory; the authors’
use of inherently problematic or complex terms or ideas; themes that compare or contrast authors’ approaches, claims, or findings;
or other issues that otherwise seem ripe for consideration. Every question must incorporate a clear indication as to why the
question matters.
o a 5-8 page critical analysis of the texts from the section (This is not to be an overview, but a critical engagement through the texts
with issues that you find engaging, confusing, and so forth) (you should work on this a little everyday, with final revision and
organization just before the installment’s due date)
 Final project
o For the final project you have a choice:
 Select a book that deals in some way with the topic of the course and write a 5-8 page critical analysis of some issue that
emerges from your reading of that book
 Or, you can propose some other kind of group or individual project that in some way grapples with the issues of the
course. This can include the creation of original films, creative writing, visual art, or other possibilities. I encourage you to
consider this option. If you decide to go this route, you must develop your project in conversation with me.
Formatting: All written work must be properly formatted. See the end of the syllabus for formatting instructions.
Attendance: Required. Five-College students must follow the Amherst College schedule for meeting times.
Updated Tuesday, January 11, 2011
# & date
01
Title
Introduction
H35/EUST72, p3
Readings
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02
Thurs. Jan. 27
Nations & Nationalism
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03
Tues. Feb. 1
04
Thurs. Feb. 3
05
Tues., Feb. 8
06
Thurs., Feb. 10
07
Tues., Feb. 15
Historical Overview of
Fascism in W. Europe

(coursepack) Stanley Payne, A History of Fascism, 1914-1945, pages 1-128

(book) Aristotle A. Kallis, editor, The Fascism Reader (New York: Routledge, 2003)
o Gilbert Allardyce, “Generic Fascism: and ‘Illusion’”
o Juan Linz, “Fascism as ‘latecomer’: An ideal type with negotiations”
o Roger Eatwell, “A Spectral-Syncretic Approach to Fascism”
o Stanley Payne, “”Fascism as a ‘generic’ concept”

(coursepack) A. James Gregor, Mussolini’s Intellectuals: Fascist Social and Political
Thought (Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2005), pp 1-60

(book) Fascism Reader
o Zeev Sternhell, “Fascist Ideology: A Dissident Revision of Marxism?”
(E-reserve) Zeev Sternhell, Neither Right nor Left: Fascist Ideology in France, ix-31
Introduction to the
Debates
Taking Seriously
Fascist Ideology:
Fascism and its
Intellectuals in France
Taking Seriously
Fascist Ideology:
Fascism and its
Intellectuals in Italy
(coursepack) Benedict Anderson, “Imagined Communities,” from Nations and
Nationalism, edited by Philip Spencer and Howard Wollman (Edinburgh UP, 2005).
(coursepack) Walker Connor, “When is a nation?,” from Nationalism, edited by
Hutchinson and Smith (New York: Oxford UP, 1994).
(coursepack) Walker Connor, “A Nation is a Nation, is a State, is an Ethnic Group, is a…”
from Nationalism
(coursepack)(documents) from Nationalism
o (document) Ernest Renan, “Qu’est-ce qu’une nation?” (1882)
o (document) Joseph Stalin, “The Nation” (1913)
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Race and Colonialism

(coursepack) Stuart Hall, “Gramsci’s relevance for the study of race and ethnicity” in
Stuart Hall: Critical Dialogues in Cultural Studies, eds. David Morley and Kuan-Hsing
Chen (New York: Routledge, 1996), 411-440.
(book) Fascism Reader
o Mark Neocleous, “Racism, fascism and nationalism”
Updated Tuesday, January 11, 2011
08
Thurs., Feb. 17
H35/EUST72, p4
Map Quiz (I will be out of town, but someone will be available to administer the quiz)
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09
Tues., Feb. 22
10
Thurs., Feb. 24
Art, Race and Nation
in the Avant Garde
General Fascism
Redux
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(coursepack) Mark Antliff, “Cubism, Futurism, Anarchism: The ‘Aestheticism’ of the
‘Action d’art’ Group, 1906-1921.” Oxford Art Journal 21(2)(1998): 101-120.
(coursepack) Mark Antliff, “The Jew as Anti-Artist: Georges Sorel, Anti-Semitism, and the
Aesthetics of Class Consciousness.” Oxford Art Journal 20(1)(1997): 50-67.
(book) Richard Griffiths, An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Fascism (Duckworth Publishers,
2001), 1-113 & 153-155
First installment of journal due by the end of Friday, Feb. 25th. Email it to me a Word attachment. The subject of the email must be
“Fascism Installment 1”
Part 2
Global Fascism
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11
Tues. , March 1
England
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12
Thurs., March 3
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Spain
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13
Tues., March 8
Diffusion of
Fascism?, German
and Italian Policy
14
Thurs., March 10
Diffusion of
Fascism?, Iberian
Policy
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(coursepack) Martin Pugh, Hurrah for the Blackshirts!: Fascists and Fascism in Britain
Between the Wars (London, Jonathan Cape, 2005), 1-6, 51-74, 213-234, 261-286.
(book) Fascism Reader
o Richard Thurlow, “Britain, the “British Union of the Fascists”
(E-reserve) Ismael Saz Campos, “Fascism, fascistization and developmentalism in Franco’s
dictatorship,” Social History 29(3)(August 2004): 342-357.
(coursepack) Juan Linz, “An Authoritarian Regime: Spain,” from Politics and Society in
Twentieth-Century Spain, edited by Stanley Payne (New Cork: New Viewpoints, 1976), 160207.
(book) Fascism Reader
o Ellwood M. Sheelagh, “Spain: The ‘Falange’”
(to be distributed) from Fascism Outside of Europe
o Albrecht Hagemann, “The Diffusion of German Nazism”
o Emilio Gentile, “I fasci italiani all’estero. The ‘Foreign Policy’ of the Fascist Party”
(to be distributed) from Fascism Outside of Europe
o Raanan Rein, “Francoist Spain and Latin America”
o Helosia Paulo, “‘Portugal is here too!’ Salazarism and the Portuguese Community in
Brazil”
Updated Tuesday, January 11, 2011
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Spring Recess: March 15 and 17. No class.
15
Tues., March 22
No Class: I have to travel to Illinois for a talk

(coursepack) Partha Chatterjee, “Whose Imagined Community?” from The Nation and Its
Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories (Princeton UP, 1993), 1-14.
 (coursepack) Edward Said, Selections, from Culture and Imperialism
 (to be distributed) from Fascism Outside of Europe
17
Global Fascism I:
o Gregory Kasza, “Fascism from Above? Japan’s Kakusin Right in Comparative
Tues., March 29
East Asia
Perspective”
o William Kirby, “Images and Realities of Chinese Fascism”
 (to be distributed) from Fascism Outside of Europe
18
Global Fascism II:
o Firkret Adanir, “Kremalist Authoritarianism and Fascist Trends in Turkey during
Thurs., March 31 Eastern
the Interwar Period”
Mediterranean
o Joseph Heller, “The Failure of Fascism in Jewish Palestine, 1935-1948”
 (to be distributed) from Fascism Outside of Europe (divide up the readings)
o John Perkins and Andrew Moore, “Fascism in Interwar Australia”
19
Global Fascism III:
o John Perkins, “The Swastika Among the Coconuts: Nazism in New Guinea in the
Tues., April 5
South Pacific
1930’s”
o Mario Sznajder, “Was there fascism in Chile? The Movimiento Nacional Socialista
in the 1930’s”
 (to be distributed) from Fascism Outside of Europe
20
Global Fascism IV
o Stein Ugelvick Larson, “Was there Fascism outside Europe? Diffusion from
Thurs., April 7
Europe and Domestic Impulses”
Second installment of journal due by the end of Friday, April 8th. Email it to me a Word attachment. The subject of the email must
be “Fascism Installment 2”
16
Thurs., March 24
Nationalism as a
Derivative
Discourse?
Updated Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Part 3
H35/EUST72, p6
Fascism in Latin America: Three Cases (Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil)
 (to be distributed) from Fascism Outside of Europe
o Nicolás Cárdenas and Mauricio Tenorio, “Mexico 1920’s-1940’s: Revolutionary
Government, Reactionary Politics”
 (to be distributed) “Gerardo Murillo (aka Doctor Atl): Father of Muralism?”
21
Mexico
 (to be distributed) (document) Dr Atl, speech, “La importancia mundial de la revolución
Tues., April 12
mexicana,” (Dec. 12, 1914) from El símbola y la acción, edited by Olga Sáenz (Mexico: El
Colegio Nacional, 2005), 588-601.
 (E-reserve) (document) Carleton Beals, “The Mexican Fascisti,” Current History vol. 19
(October 1923 – March 1924), pp257-261.
22
 (book) Federico Finchelstein, Transatlantic Fascism: Ideology, Violence, and the Sacred
Argentina I
Thurs., April 14
in Argentina and Italy, 1919-1945 (Duke University Press, 2010), overview and pp1-118
23
 (book) Finchelstein, Transatlantic Fascism, pp 118-end
Argentina II
Tues., April 19
 (coursepack)(document) from Daniel James, Doña María’s Story, pp 70-91.
 (to be distributed) from Fascism Outside of Europe
o Trindade Helgio, “Fascism and Authoritarianism in Brazil”
 (coursepack) (document) Bailey Diffie, Comments on the Estado Novo, from Brazil
24
Brazil
Reader 200-203.
Thurs., April 21
 (coursepack) (document) Plinio Salgado, “The Fourth Era of Humanity Dawns” (1934)
and “The Soul of the Nation Awakens” (1935), from Fascism, edited by Roger Griffin
(NY: Oxford UP, 1995), 234-237
Third installment of journal due by the end of Friday, April 22nd. Email it to me a Word attachment. The subject of the email must
be “Fascism Installment 3”
Updated Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Part 4
25
Tues., April 26
26
Thurs., April 28
27
Tues., May 3
28
Thurs., May 5
H35/EUST72, p7
Three Debates: Women, Nature, and Islam
 (coursepack) Kevin Passmore, Introduction and Conclusion, Women, Gender, and Fascism
in Europe (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 2003).
 (coursepack) Richard Evans, chapter 6, Comrades and Sisters: Feminism, Socialism and
Women and Gender in
Pacifism in Europe, 1870-1945 (NY: St. Martin’s Press, 1987)
Fascism in Europe and
 (coursepack) Victoria de Grazia, “Nationalizing Women: The Competition between Fascist
Latin America, Part I
and Commercial Cultural Models in Mussolini’s Italy,” from The Sex of Things: Gender
and Consumption in Historical Perspective, edited by Victoria de Grazia and Ellen
Furlough (Berkeley: University of California, 1996).
 (coursepack) Sandra McGee Deutsch, “Spreading Right-Wing Patriotism, Femininity, and
Morality,” from Radical Women in Latin America: Left and Right, edited by Victoria
Women and Gender in
González and Karen Kampwirth (University Park: Pennsylvania State University, 2001).
Fascism in Europe and
Latin America, Part II
 (coursepack) Blackshirt women article (I have a copy on my computer)
 (coursepack) Martin Dunham, “Britain,” from Women, Gender and Fascism in Europe.
 (coursepack) Michael Imort, “A Sylvan People: Wilhelmine Forestry and the Forest as a
Symbol of Germandom,” in Germany’s Nature: Cultural Landscapes and Environmental
Nazism’s Legacy in
History, edited by Thomas Lekan and Thomas Zeller (New Brunswick, NJ, Rutgers UP,
German
2005). 55-80.
Environmentalism
 (coursepack) Jonathan Olsen, Nature and Nationalism: Right-Wing Ecology and the
Politics of Identity in Contemporary Germany (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999), pp1-6
 (to be distributed) Jeffrey Herf, Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World (Yale University
Press, 2009), 1-14
“Islamo-Fascism”?
 (to be distributed) Jeffrey Bale, “Islamism and Totalitarianism,” Totalitarian Movements &
Political Religions Jun2009, Vol. 10 Issue 2, p73-96.
 (to be distributed) Jeffrey Herf, interview.
Final installment of journal due by the end of Friday, May 6th. Email it to me a Word attachment. The subject of the email must be
“Fascism Installment 4”
Final paper or project due by the end of May 10th.
Updated Tuesday, January 11, 2011
H35/EUST72, p8
To study for the map quiz:
Countries AND their capital cities
Afghanistan
Algeria
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Brazil
Chile
China
Egypt
England
France
Germany
India
Iraq
Israel
Italy
Japan
Mexico
Morocco
New Guinea
Poland
Portugal
Russia
Spain
Syria
Turkey
Regions
Africa
Alps
Asia
Andes Mountains (full extent)
Black Forest (Germany)
Central America
Europe
Iberia
Mediterranean Sea
Middle East
North Africa
North America
Palestine
South America
Southern Cone
Grading:
Class Attendance and Participation……………………………….…………….……...37%
Attendance
12%
Participation
25%
Map quiz……………………………………………………………….……….………..5%
Written work and Final project (all weighed equally)……………………. .….…..…..58%
*Students with any disability should speak with me at the beginning of the semester about any special arrangements they may require
Updated Tuesday, January 11, 2011
H35/EUST72, p9
Formatting
Instructions
Important!
Points will be deducted for noncompliance
Every written assignment must
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Place your name at the top of the document
Font must be black, 12pt, Times
Pages must be numbered
Ideas and quotes from others that you build upon must be acknowledged in the prose of your writing (Example: “Though
Alexander de Grande argues that fascism was thuggery with no intellectual content, Gregor encourages us to consider….)
Ideas and quotes from others must be footnoted (do not use in-text citations)
All footnotes must be properly formatted. Note that bibliography entries and footnotes citations are formatted differently
than one another. The first time you cite something in a journal installment or an essay you must include the full citation;
subsequently you can use the short form.
Margins must be 1 inch on all sides (not 1.25”, not .8”)
The subject of the email carrying the attachment must read “Fascism Installment #”, replacing the # with the number of the
Installment.
If it is a journal installment, include ONLY the material from that section of the syllabus, NOT everything we have done thus
far in the semester
Updated Tuesday, January 11, 2011
H35/EUST72, p10
Note on plagiarism: When you take the words, work, or ideas of someone else and pass them off as your own you are committing
plagiarism. This includes misusing works that are cited elsewhere in your paper. Always be explicit about when you are building upon
the ideas of others, and when you are taking things in your own direction. If you decide to plagiarize your will receive an “F” for the
entire course and I will turn the matter over to the dean with a recommendation for expulsion from Amherst College. If you have any
doubt about how to acknowledge the work of others in your footnotes, consult the style guide or come see me.
January 24, 2011: All day: Classes begin
March 12, 2011 until March 20: Spring Recess. (Residence halls remain open.)
May 6, 2011: All day: Last day of classes
May 7, 2011until May 8: Reading/Study Period
May 9, 2011until May 13: Examination Period
May 16, 2011 9:00 am: Grades due for seniors
May 18, 2011 4:00 pm: Grades due for non-seniors
May 22, 2011 All day: Commencement