Introduction: Fascism and the other -‘isms’

This book revisits the major themes of research into, and interpretation of, the nature of fascism that have been developed since the 1970s. European fascism continues to attract a considerable degree of attention, as the continuous publication on theme testifies. During the past 20 years the comparative study of fascism has concentrated increasingly on its ideological and cultural dimensions, at times becoming ‘ideology-centred’. We may even say that the analysis of so-called ‘generic fascism’ has moved from a ‘sociological’ to a more ‘political’ perspective, giving both ideology and culture much more importance than was previously the case. On the other hand, this area has become more restricted in disciplinary terms, with historians clearly dominating over sociologists and political scientists.