Book Review Liberal Fascism

Book Review: Liberal Fascism

Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left by Jonah Goldberg, New York, Doubleday, 2007.
On the surface this book looks like another tiresome piece of political propaganda on the order of American Fascism, Christopher Hedges’ loathsome and hate filled tract that assures Blue state residents that everyone who reads a Bible is potential Brownshirt. In contrast Goldberg’s book a rather fun tour through history that makes some good conclusions.
Unlike Hedges, Goldberg is a good historian who actually knows something about history. His basic conclusion is right on, between 1910 and 1950 the American Progressive movement behaved a great deal like the Italian fascists and their wicked stepchildren the German Nazis. Like Hitler and Mussolini American progressives like Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and FDR wanted an all powerful state and promoted an all embracing nationalism that trampled the rights of average citizens. Like Wilson, FDR & TR Mussolini believed that war and conquest were good things that would benefit the nation. Goldberg is correct when he notes the similarity between Woodrow Wilson’s World War One administration in America and the dictatorships of Mussolini and Hitler.
Goldberg is also correct when he points out that large numbers of America’s best and brightest openly admired Hitler and Mussolini and wanted to emulate their regimes before World War II. Of course he forgets to note that until World War II, Hitler and Mussolini’s behavior wasn’t all that bad and certainly no where near as horrific as that of Lenin or Stalin. Nor does Goldberg admit that most Americans abandoned whatever sympathy they had for Hitler after the revelation of the true nature of his regime and its crimes particularly the Holocaust. Or for that matter the contempt most Americans had for Mussolini and his pygmy empire. Especially after Mussolini’s military when faced with overwhelming British and American military power in 1943, quickly changed sides and joined the Allies. Leaving Il Duce to the tender mercies of his ally Hitler.
Goldberg goes off course when he starts chronicling after 1950 and making the case that modern American liberals are fascist. When he tries to call the radicals of the 1960s fascist he falls flat on his face. Of the various leftist morons who surfaced in the 1960s only the Black Panthers could be called fascist. The Weathermen, the anti war movement, Students for a Democratic Society and so on were many bad things but they certainly weren’t fascist. Anarchist perhaps, Communist maybe but fascist no. Indeed like far too many modern conservative historians Goldberg pays far too much attention to the bored students who played revolution in the late 1960s. That is they played revolutionary until daddy stopped mailing the allowance checks then the revolutionaries quietly bought ties and rejoined society.
Nor does Goldberg make a convincing case that the tired joke called the modern American left is fascist. He gives the left too much credit, true fascism would require energy, imagination and some modicum of courage. The present American left hasn’t shown any of these traits. Indeed the American left is so afraid of itself and its own ideology that it is practically harmless.
Indeed as Goldberg points out if there are American fascists or heirs of the totalitarian progressives of the 1930s and 40s it is the neoconservatives. Like the old time Progressives the neoconservatives believe in war for war’s sake, imperialism, militarism and nationalism. Like John F. Kennedy (the real guy not the liberal myth), Lyndon Johnson and Theodore Roosevelt before them, the Neocons want an American empire and believe that American arms will bring democracy to the world. Like the progressives the neocons are willing to lie for the sake of their war effort and violate the rights of their fellow citizens. Like the progressives the neocons have enlisted God in their crusade, George Bush dusted off the tired old social gospel and began sermonizing from it. Fortunately the Neocons have not been able to trample civil liberties or engage in the kind of fascist gangsterism that FDR and Woodrow Wilson were allowed to get away with.
In conclusion Goldberg’s book is a good read, but hardly original (generations of libertarians have pointed out FDR’s fascist tendencies) or convincing. Goldberg is right to conclude that there was a progressive fascism in American but he fails to notice that it died shortly after World War II if not before. What happened in the 1960s and has happened since is certainly bad but it isn’t fascism. What’s needed is for a far more insightful libertarian writer to take a look at 20th century history and write a definitive and original book. Goldberg’s book isn’t it that but hopefully it could inspire such a work.
One final thought here, the fact that this book was brought out by a major New York publishing house and given wide attention shows that there is a strong discontent with the establishment view of American history and a strong appetite for libertarian thought out there. Hopefully Goldberg’s work will inspire Americans to learn the real history of their country and see how the leaders of past misled us and trampled our liberty in the process. If that is the case then maybe this book will be remembered as the opening shot in the war to reclaim American history for liberty.