Was fascism a popular global social movement comparable to communism, or an
elite ‘move’?
Was pre-War Japan ‘fascist’? What is achieved by describing it as such?
Are the roots of fascism better thought of as cultural or economic?
What do the interwar years tell us about the compatibility of liberalism and
democracy?
BASE ANSWERS ON THE FOLLOWING READINGS:
Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation, The Political and Economic Origins of our
Time, Beacon Press, Massachusetts, first published 1944. Chapter 12, ‘History in the
Gear of Social Change’, pp. 245-268. URL
Stanley G. Payne, A History of Fascism, 1914-1945, University of Wisconsin Press,
1995. Chapter 10, “Fascism Outside Europe’: 328-355. (Introduction: ‘Fascism, a
Working Definition’: 1-23 is also useful but is summarised in Kasza, below) URL
Gregory J. Kasza, ‘Fascism from below? A Comparative Perspective on the Japanese
Riqht, 1931 -1936’. Journal of Contemporary Historv. Vol- 1 9, No. 4. (Oct. 1984), DD.