Interpretations of British Fascism
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-9248.1976.tb00117.x |
| Published date | 01 September 1976 |
| Author | Robert Benewick |
| Date | 01 September 1976 |
| Subject Matter | Review Articles |
REVIEW ARTICLES
INTERPRETATIONS
OF
BRITISH
FASCISM
ROBERT BENEWICK
Sussex University
I
THE
study of European fascism has produced several schools of thought. The
extensive literature reflects not only the theoretical and empirical advances but
the uncertainties and controversies that characterize the field.
This
is as it should
be
if we are to come close to understanding fascism. The difficulties are not
restricted to the data nor necessarily to ideological predispositions but are in-
herent in a subject that attracts and repels. Despite the passage of time, perspec-
tives remain clouded in emotion.
An
early wave of scholars in Britain and the United States attempted to explain
the causes and nature of fascism, often in a grand manner. If the advent of
fascism could
be
credited to economic crises, national humiliation, the failure of
parliamentary institutions, the conditions for fascism could
be
found in historical
and intellectual traditions-national and European-national character and a
nation’s position on a tradition/modernity scale. Interpreters and their interpre-
tations could be grouped as liberal, conservative and marxist. There has also
been considerable research on ideology and propaganda, leaders and leadership,
party and paramilitary organizations. German and Italian scholars have been
engaged in their own evaluation of the period, while a revisionist school in Britain
is concerned with foreign policy. Of great importance are the growing number
of monographs on fascist activity at the local level, on the role of peasants and
workers, and the relation of industry to the state.
A
number of more theoretical
works are beginning to appear or are in the pipeline, but it is at the comparative
level that the approach remains the most unsatisfactory. Although the totalitarian
framework has been challenged with the recognition that fascism was neither
monolithic nor static, the measure of shared characteristics has not been
transcended.
The British version of fascism has also been chronicled although the subject is
by no means exhausted. These studies,* whatever their explicit intention, raise
questions fundamental to the British polity and contribute
to
the understanding
of the causes and nature of fascism and to the possibilities for a comparative
approach, for valuable clues may be found in those systems that were resistant to
*
Robert Benewick,
The Fascisf Movemenf in Britain,
Allen Lane,
340
pp.,
€2.00;
John
D.
Brewer.
The British
Union
of
Fascists,
Sir
Oswald
Mosley
and
Birmingham:
An
Analysis
of
the
Contenf
and
Context
of
Ideology
(unpublished thesis at University
of
Birmingham);
Colin
Cross,
The Fascists in Britain,
Barrie and Rockliff,
212
pp.;
W.
F.
Mandle,
Anti-Semitism
and
the
British Union
of
Fmcisfs.
Longmans,
78
pp.;
Sir
Oswald Mosley,
My
Life,
Nelson,
521
pp.;
Robert Skidelsky,
Oswald
Mosley,
Macmillan,
578
pp.,
€6.95.
P.litial
Sndia.
Vol.
XXIV.
No. 3
(320-324)
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