What is fascism? By concentrating on the concrete: the actual fascists did instead of what they stated, the esteemed historian Robert O. Paxton answers this query for the first time. From the 1st violent uniformed rings beating up “opponents of the state,” through Mussolini’s rise to power, to Germany’s fascist radicalization in World Battle II, Paxton shows clearly why fascists found power in a few countries and not others, and he explores whether fascism could exist outside the early-twentieth-century European environment in which it surfaced.The Anatomy of Fascism could have a enduring impact on our understanding of modern European history, just like Paxton’s classic Vichy France redefined our vision of World War II. Predicated on an eternity of analysis, this convincing and important book transforms our understanding of fascism-“the major political innovation of the twentieth century, and the source of much of its pain.”