An important book about the most significant threat to global democracy.
A historian of fascist movements encourages us to use "the f-word" when describing contemporary far-right populist leaders.
During his career, Finchelstein, author of A Brief History of Fascist Lies, has focused his research on the tendency of right-wing populism to escalate into full-blown fascism. The author’s concern is both personal and professional. He was born in Argentina as that nation descended into "gruesome dictatorship.” In November 2020, he authored a prescient Washington Post op-ed that warned readers about a possible coup attempt in the U.S. With this cautionary perspective, Finchelstein describes a new breed of politician willing to destroy democracy for short-term political gain: the "wannabe fascist." He makes a strong case that Trumpism is a new chapter in the history of antidemocratic politics, drawing on research and scholarship into the histories of fascism and populism. He zeroes in on a few key elements of fascism, including political violence and the militarization of politics; lies and propaganda; xenophobia; and dictatorship. In his sobering analysis, features of Trumpism seem eerily reminiscent of past fascist history. Trump's cries of "witch hunt" echo fascist warrior-martyr tropes, and social media outlets provide him with what historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat calls “a direct channel to the people.” Furthermore, Trump's comments on the "infection" of immigrants reflect classic fascism's need for "mortal enemies" and their dehumanization. Similarly, the GOP's blithe enabling of Trumpism recalls earlier apathetic responses to the rise of Mussolini and Hitler. In an epilogue, Finchelstein considers whether the world is on the cusp of a deep shift into fascism, assessing the global potential for a destruction of democracies from within. He implores readers "to learn from history to gain an understanding of the fascist dangers of the present,” and he provides a cogent user's manual for making those vital connections.
An important book about the most significant threat to global democracy.Pub Date: May 14, 2024
ISBN: 9780520392496
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Univ. of California
Review Posted Online: Feb. 10, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
For Howard Zinn, long-time civil rights and anti-war activist, history and ideology have a lot in common. Since he thinks that everything is in someone's interest, the historian—Zinn posits—has to figure out whose interests he or she is defining/defending/reconstructing (hence one of his previous books, The Politics of History). Zinn has no doubts about where he stands in this "people's history": "it is a history disrespectful of governments and respectful of people's movements of resistance." So what we get here, instead of the usual survey of wars, presidents, and institutions, is a survey of the usual rebellions, strikes, and protest movements. Zinn starts out by depicting the arrival of Columbus in North America from the standpoint of the Indians (which amounts to their standpoint as constructed from the observations of the Europeans); and, after easily establishing the cultural disharmony that ensued, he goes on to the importation of slaves into the colonies. Add the laborers and indentured servants that followed, plus women and later immigrants, and you have Zinn's amorphous constituency. To hear Zinn tell it, all anyone did in America at any time was to oppress or be oppressed; and so he obscures as much as his hated mainstream historical foes do—only in Zinn's case there is that absurd presumption that virtually everything that came to pass was the work of ruling-class planning: this amounts to one great indictment for conspiracy. Despite surface similarities, this is not a social history, since we get no sense of the fabric of life. Instead of negating the one-sided histories he detests, Zinn has merely reversed the image; the distortion remains.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1979
ISBN: 0061965588
Page Count: 772
Publisher: Harper & Row
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1979
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Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.
A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting.
To call Elon Musk (b. 1971) “mercurial” is to undervalue the term; to call him a genius is incorrect. Instead, Musk has a gift for leveraging the genius of others in order to make things work. When they don’t, writes eminent biographer Isaacson, it’s because the notoriously headstrong Musk is so sure of himself that he charges ahead against the advice of others: “He does not like to share power.” In this sharp-edged biography, the author likens Musk to an earlier biographical subject, Steve Jobs. Given Musk’s recent political turn, born of the me-first libertarianism of the very rich, however, Henry Ford also comes to mind. What emerges clearly is that Musk, who may or may not have Asperger’s syndrome (“Empathy did not come naturally”), has nurtured several obsessions for years, apart from a passion for the letter X as both a brand and personal name. He firmly believes that “all requirements should be treated as recommendations”; that it is his destiny to make humankind a multi-planetary civilization through innovations in space travel; that government is generally an impediment and that “the thought police are gaining power”; and that “a maniacal sense of urgency” should guide his businesses. That need for speed has led to undeniable successes in beating schedules and competitors, but it has also wrought disaster: One of the most telling anecdotes in the book concerns Musk’s “demon mode” order to relocate thousands of Twitter servers from Sacramento to Portland at breakneck speed, which trashed big parts of the system for months. To judge by Isaacson’s account, that may have been by design, for Musk’s idea of creative destruction seems to mean mostly chaos.
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781982181284
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
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