Paul Gottfried on Fascism

David Gordon

Paul Gottfried’s immensely erudite survey of interpretations of fascism puts one in mind of Ludwig von Mises.  Although Gottfried does not discuss Mises, readers of his excellent book will again and again be surprised and instructed at the extent to which Gottfried defends views similar to those of the great Austrian economist. Surprise, though, is not really in order. Though Mises is a classical liberal and Gottfried a conservative, both are steeped in the values and traditions of European civilization, and they interpret fascism from this perspective.

Gottfried has been greatly influenced by the historian Ernst Nolte, who sees fascism as a reaction to the violence and disruption of the Bolshevik Revolution. “Fascist movements were ‘counterrevolutionary imitations of leftist revolution’ that developed as reactions to the dangers of leftist upheavals…According to Nolte, the fascists absorbed the disruptive tactics and revolutionary élan of their leftist enemies in order to vanquish them.” (pp.1, 37)

With characteristic insight, Gottfried points out that Nolte’s analysis of fascism stems in part from “Marxist origins. . .Like conventional Marxist historians but with more conceptual inventiveness, Nolte treats the social strife in interwar Europe as the background for fascism’s rise to power. . .The civil war in which the communists and fascists locked horns was specific  to what was economically and socially the world’s most developed region. This perspective went back to a firm Marxist belief about when a socialist revolution would first erupt. . .” (pp.72-73).....To Read More....