The eighteen months between June 2016 and the end of 2017 saw the victory of Leave in Britain’s EU referendum, the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States, and unprecedented support for Marine Le Pen of the Front National in her campaign for the same office in France. Nearly a decade after the great financial crash, it is these figures and the alarmingly confident and radical version of right-wing politics they represent that have gained the initiative over a moribund center and a still weak left.
But what exactly does this new reality represent? While some argue that we are hurtling towards fascism in a replay of the 1930s, and others insist there is little substantial change from “politics as usual,” Renton takes a different and more nuanced view. In country after country, under the clouds of economic austerity and post-9/11 Islamophobia, we have seen a convergence between traditional conservatives, the authoritarian far-right, and previously marginal fascists. The result is a new, still emergent, and deeply troubling form of right-wing radicalism, at once more moderate than classical fascism in its political strategy, yet indulgent of the racism of its most extreme components.
-
Praise for Fascism, Anti-Fascism, and Britain in the 1940s:
“This volume has the obvious merit of exactly fulfilling its title's promise...it has a clear focus, a number of interesting hypotheses and an impressive volume of evidence...This is an interesting study, very well-supported by extensive evidence... .” –John R Howe, The > Lecturer
Related blog posts View all related posts
-
The New Authoritarians vs. COVID-19
An excerpt from David Renton's The New Authoritarians, a guide to understanding and combatting the rise of the right across the world.
-
90% OFF All Ebooks at HaymarketBooks.org!
It's that simple: take 90% off all Ebooks at HaymarketBooks.org through Monday, November 11th!
Other books by David Renton
-
Revolutionary Forgiveness
by David Renton
Other books of interest
-
The Nazis, Capitalism and the Working Class
-
Fighting Fascism
by Clara Zetkin -
No Is Not Enough
by Naomi Klein -
Marxists in the Face of Fascism
Edited by David Beetham -
Blood Red Lines