Paul Gottfried looks at antifascism from its roots in early 20th-century Europe to its American manifestation in the present. The pivotal development for defining the present political spectrum, he suggests, has been the replacement of a recognizably Marxist left by an intersectional one. Political and ideological struggles have been configured around this new left, which has become a dominant force throughout the Western world.
Gottfried discusses the major changes undergone by antifascist ideology since the 1960s, fascist and antifascist models of the state and assumptions about human nature, nationalism versus globalism, the antifascism of the American conservative establishment, and Antifa in the United States.
Gottfried concludes that promoting a fear of fascism today serves the interests of the powerful in particular, those in positions of political, journalistic, and educational power who want to bully and isolate political opponents. He points out the generous support given to the intersectional left by multinational capitalists and examines the movement of the White working class in Europe, including former members of communist parties, toward the populist right, suggesting this shows a political dynamic that is different from the older dialectic between Marxists and anti-Marxists.
The book is published by University of Oklahoma Press. The audiobook will be published by University Press Audiobooks.
“Antifascism is an important book for understanding that every time our rulers claim to be fighting old fascism, they are really proposing new tyranny.” (The Washington Examiner)
“One of the most learned scholars of politics in our time has produced a methodical demolition of the myths propagated about Antifa in the halls of politics, media, and universities.” (Alexander Riley, author of Toward a Biosocial Science)
