| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 112.5

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 112.5 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Methods/Theory

A. James Gregor.The Search for Neofascism: The Use and Abuse of Social Science. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2006. Pp. xii, 306. Cloth $70.00, paper $23.99.
A. James Gregor is a scholar of Italian fascism driven to writing this book in disgust at the loose way in which the term "neofascism" is nowadays used. The left tends to hurl "Fascist!" at anyone on the right with slightly authoritarian tendencies—men like Barry Goldwater or Silvio Berlusconi. Now the right joins in with terms like "Islamo-fascism." Gregor reprimands many scholars in the course of his case studies on recent European rightists, Islamic jihadis, Hindu nationalists, black nationalists, and post-Mao Chinese nationalists. He concludes there is little real neofascism in the world today. Fascism died in World War II. To define and decry today's evils, we should find new and better categories of analysis. The argument is lively and sophisticated while the case studies mostly convince and are sometimes quite fascinating. This is a book to enjoy.	1
But it does depend on what we mean by fascism, and Gregor's understanding of it is distinctive. He almost invariably capitalizes it, as "Fascism," by which he means only Italian fascism. He notes that other scholars also deploy the term "generic fascism," referring to a common core of doctrine or organization shared by Italians, Germans, and others, but Gregor is ambivalent about this. He repeatedly stresses that Nazis and Italian fascists were different: Nazis were racist, Italians were not. Yet he does sometimes slip generic fascism back in. Moreover, he has a distinctive understanding of Italian fascism, drawn from his earlier work: its commitment to economic development. So when discussing the Islamic jihadis, their lack of interest in this disqualifies them from being neofascists in Gregor's eyes. Scholars who do not privilege fascist developmentalism might disagree. And irritatingly, he never defines any of these terms— (Italian) Fascism, (generic) fascism, or neofascism—though this does not prevent him in all of his case studies from concluding whether or not the subjects are neofascist.	. . .

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