James Foster's Reviews > Fascism: A Warning

Madeleine Albright has two nearly unique qualifications for writing about fascism. She and her family lived through and suffered from the last undisputed bout of fascism, when Hitler and Mussolini were literally destroying the Western World. Those who criticize this book need to remember Albright knows what she is talking about She has the scars to prove it. As a personal history, only a fool would take this book lightly.

Also significant, Albright has more experience with the politics of the modern world than almost anyone else alive. She is highly respected in international circles, having served as Secretary of State, U.S. Ambassador to the UN, and a distinguished scholar. She knows how the world works. She brings keen insight and deep analysis to modern politics, without neglecting or minimizing the facts of history. Only a fool would dismiss her expertise lightly.

Unfortunately, there are far too many fools in the world. As the negative reviews of Fascism show, many people mistake their political biases for criticism.

Let’s get one thing out of the way. Albright did not set out to criticize Trump or Trumpists. This book began as a history and analysis of Fascism. Albright began it before Trump’s candidacy, and long before his election. Only one chapter out of seventeen is about Trump. The two concluding chapters are about American Democracy and the things that we questions thaty we Americans should be asking. The fact that many, though not all, of Albright’s portraits of dictators resonate with our current situation is just reality, not a political hack job. Again, it is foolish, and corrosive, to dismiss history because the implications disagree with one’s biases.

So, back to the book.

Each chapter is a historical case study of some aspect of fascism, the conditions which make it possible, and the means by which it arises. It begins with Hitler and how his cult of personality encouraged resentment, anger, and hatred. Mussolini and Franco cultivated lack of compassion and nativist primacy. These precedents led to the collapse of Democracy in Albright’s native Czechoslovakia. To most readers, the 40s are a mythical past; something bad that happened, but which doesn’t seem real; something which simply couldn’t happen today. Albright’s experience should remind us that the rise of fascism is very real, dangerous. Albright is not making this stuff up.

Halfway through the book, in chapter nine, Albright pauses to reflect on what it takes for a Representative Democracy to survive. First, people need to want it to survive. Many people in traditional Western Democracies have begun to feel left out, denigrated, and economically disadvantaged. Polls show that this feeds a growing distrust of Democracy itself. Wannabe tyrants and demagogues, in order to acquire and retain political power, feed these sentiments, eroding traditional Democratic institutions and values.

The next several chapters cover more recent history, showing that the modern political landscape is recapitulating the slide toward fascism that uprooted Albright’s family in the 40’s. Case studies include Erdogan in Turkey, Putin in Russia, Orban and others in Eastern Europe, and Kim Il-Sung and his son in Korea. Today’s aspiring tyrants and fascists are using the playbooks from the 40’s to capitalize on popular softness in support for Democracy. They are effective. Democracy is at serious risk of being smothered by fascism.

The antepenultimate chapter is the only sustained discussion of the Trump presidency. Albright argues that the historical role of the American Presidency was to represent America as a home for Liberal Democracy, a beacon for the oppressed; an example to people everywhere of how freedom was possible politically. She gives examples of Trump’s admiration for tyrants (this was long before his shameful performance in Helsinki), his attacks on the foundations of Democracy, his disregard for the rule of law, and his appeal to antidemocratic sentiments among voters who feel dispossessed. This chapter should not be read as a stand-alone anti-Trump screed. It shows how the current Administration is playing to the fascist agenda, in the context of history and of current international politics.

Fascism: A Warning ends, naturally, with a warning. Our Constitution established a very robust form of government, one who’s self-correcting mechanisms would normally suffice to keep America from losing its Democratic soul at home or its role as an example for the rest of the world. But right now, in the context of incipient fascism world-wide, there is a real risk that we could lose our way.