Image by BP Miller.
Introduction
On October 24, 1970, in writing for the Amsterdam weekly, Vrij Nederland, Dutch journalist and Trotskyite Igor Cornelissen, (1935–2021) known for his cutting-edge surveys of the second world war, communism, and the history of leftist movements in the Netherlands, wrote a series of book reviews on the leading works in the context of analyzing a renewed fascist epidemic.[1] Cornelissen, the editor from 1962-1996, was also a member of the Fourth International up until 1971. His work as a historian of Dutch radicalism, and his close examinations of figures linked to communism, drew him to analyze these eight seminal works to better understand fascism in the context of the political unrest found in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
The Nature of Fascism
Cornelissen first looked at The Nature of Fascism, edited by S.J. Woolf and published by Vintage Books in 1969. This is a fundamental book that compiles a wide variety of academic papers initially presented at a 1967 graduate symposium at the University of Reading. The anthology analyzes fascism through the perspectives of several countries and provides an interdisciplinary assessment across Europe. In his 1970 review for The New York Review of Books, Leonard Shapiro critiqued the conference held in England, arguing that it failed due to its reliance on unclear concepts rather than concrete historical study. He quoted de Maistre’s cautionary words: “listen to the voice of history.”[2]
Shapiro criticized the attempt to define the final stage of capitalism as a fascist economic system since too many places’ historical realities transcended the ideological generalizations offered in the book. He did point out that Timothy Wright Mason’s writings on Nazi Germany stood out for their accuracy. As for Cornelissen, he highlighted two overarching questions in his review: “Who supported National Socialists?” and “Could Hitler’s seizure of power have been prevented and by whom?” He concluded that only the German Workers Movement, from 1918-1928 was by itself, stronger than the NSDAP. The Nature of Fascism, covering 1918-1933, remains a noteworthy text in the historiography of fascism.[3]
The Nature of Fascism, U.K. Edition, 1968: Weidenfeld and Nicholson.
The Weimar Republic
Arthur Rosenberg’s History of the Weimar Republic (Geschichte der Weimarer Republik), first published in 1935 (redistributed in 1970) also remains as a seminal book. Rosenberg provided a serious investigation of political forces leading to the downfall of Weimar. His central thesis was that the origins of the Republic’s decline rested with a coalition between liberals and the aristocracy.[4] This repressed any workers’ movement as people turned to supporting first world war era militarism. The German Revolution of 1918 brought with it democracy, but Rosenberg pointed out how enough anti-democratic forces remained powerful to disrupt his preferred Social Democratic Party (SPD). Cornelissen asserted that Rosenberg was “merciless in his judgment of the SDP,” of which he was a member, as well as the Communist Party (KPD).[5]
He went on in his review to state that “[Rosenberg] is not a brilliant stylist,” yet “everything he puts down is essential.” Further, “every maneuver of this SDP leadership was followed by further encroachment of the bourgeoisie, which in turn signified a still further departure from the ideals of the revolution and loss of the social and political conquest previously won,” wrote Cornelissen.[6] He summarized how Rosenberg’s analysis provided an explanation for the rise of fascism, and the class warfare (i.e. farmers opposing Bolsheviks) that compromised the fragility of democratic institutions in the face of the nobility and totalitarian structures.
History of the Weimar Republic, First Edition, 1935: Europäische Verlagsanstalt.
Revolution and the Soviet Republic
Revolution und Räterepublik in Bremen (Revolution and Soviet Republic in Bremen), edited by Peter Kuckuk and published in 1969, is a thorough book that focuses on the radical era in Bremen after World War I. This work investigated the foundational institutions of the Bremen Soviet Republic or Räterepublik and described workers’ and soldiers’ councils, and the partisan strains among social democrats, communists — and the wider social movements that took place in the city.[7] Kuckuk’s precise citations and study of local sources, offers a micro and local level of analysis type of history.
Cornelissen called the work, “penetrating” in its ability to include “complete documentation and eyewitness reports of the short-lived experiment.”[8] Kuckuk was interested in how social upheaval went down in Bremen, a key political hub for revolutionary action in Germany in the early 20th century. The little book offers valuable insight into the complexities of the “Forgotten Revolution” of 1918-1919, highlighting the disputed nature of power and the delicate efforts by workers and their aims for self-determination.
Revolution and Soviet Republic in Bremen, 1969, German Edition: Suhrkamp Verlag.
German Revolution Documents
Die deutsche Revolution 1918–1919: Dokumente (The German Revolution Documents), edited by Gerhard A. Ritter and Susanne Miller, was first published in 1968 by Fischer Verlag. The volume is a comprehensive collection of primary data documenting the German Revolution and includes official papers, speeches, and manifestos from several political groups that participated in the revolution.[9] This collection of primary sources went without many annotations on the part of the authors, who wished for the papers to speak for themselves. The book offered readers firsthand accounts of political dynamics of the revolution.
This chronological work analyzes major events like: the abdication of Wilhelm II, the establishment of Weimar, and the Spartacist Tradition. It is wide ranging in its collection of viewpoints thus showing how competing forces can help guide revolutions. This collection is generally considered an indispensable resource for historians and scholars of German history.
The German Revolution Documents, 1918–1919, German Edition, 1975: Hoffmann and Campe.
Memoirs of a Political Outsider
Ernst Hanfstaengl’s disturbing memoir, Zwischen Weißem und Braunem Haus: Memoiren eines politischen Außenseiters, (Between the White and Brown Houses: Memoirs of a Political Outsider) was first published in 1970 by R. Piper Verlag in Munich. It chronicled and described Hanfstaengl’s involvements within the Nazi command as he “fell under Hitler’s charm and served him for many years, until he was forced to flee abroad in 1937,” wrote Cornelissen. “Putzi,” to his friends, fled and came directly to the United States under an adviser to FDR, hence the title of the book.[10]
The account is separated by several sections. Each one focuses on a different period of Hanfstaengl’s life: spanning his formative years and schooling at Harvard, to his involvement with the Nazi Party and his ultimate defection. The reflection on his unique positionings between both power centers, according to Cornelissen, is hard to substantiate. Further, although Hanfstaengl was a “superficial type,” it is important to understand how the privileged classes exploited the conflating natures of economic fascism that could compromise the educated classes on all sides. “Many aspects of this subject are discussed,” according to Cornelissen, “including the relation between German and Italian fascism and the intellectuals.”[11]
Between the White and Brown Houses: Memoirs of a Political Outsider, German Edition, 1970: R. Piper.
On Fascism
On Fascism, or Over het Fascisme, published in 1970, is a two-volume collection and presents a comprehensive Marxist breakdown of fascism. Volume 1 includes the essay by Timothy Wright Mason also found in, The Nature of Fascism, and features contributions from Wolfgang Abendroth, Daniel Guérin, and Jan Romein and others. These essays consider the political and social roots of fascism, combining historical research with Marxist theory to survey fascism’s emergence as a reactionary movement, aligned with capitalist interests, and aimed at defeating the working-classes. The authors analyze the class dynamics and the failures of the left that allowed fascism to rise, providing detailed case studies. For example, Romein includes an economic explanation for fascism through big business while Mason and Bronislaw Grosser highlighted politics —they explained how, “after 1933 Polish metalworkers were absorbed by the Nazis through amassing political power.”[12]
Volume 2 (not pictured) brings together works by Fritz Haug, August Thalheimer, and the notable Herbert Marcuse. The second volume expands the conversation to include critical theory perspectives, ideological criticism, and more case studies of history. This volume supplements the understanding of fascism by incorporating reflections on war, culture and ideology and the effects of technology on the workers’ revolution. Both Volumes 1 and 2 provide interdisciplinary contexts as Over het fascisme remains a vital Marxist source.[13]
On Fascism, Vol. 1, Netherlands Edition, 1970: Stichting.
Fascism and Big Business
Daniel Guérin’s Fascisme et Grand Capital (Fascism and Big Business) first published in 1936, is a seminal Marxist study of fascism that scrutinizes the close relationship between fascist regimes and capitalist interests. Guérin offered “a Marxist explanation of the fact that Hitler got support from big industry,” stated Cornelissen. “By means of speeches and newspaper reports from the years in question, he traced the development of the relationship of forces between fascists and antifascists.” Cornelissen points out Guérin’s observation that “unions did not manage to hang on to the advantages won by the workers.” This was joined “by mass unemployment and fascist street gangs.”[14] He emphasized that some of the crushing and overpowering of the working classes and revolutionary movements were self-inflicted.[15]
From detailed historical examples inside Italy, Germany, and Spain, Guérin showed how fascism developed during periods of capitalist crises and served as a tool to protect the capitalist system through state violence. The book explored the social base of fascism, highlighting the alliance between industrialists, financiers, and reactionary forces that enabled fascist leaders to consolidate. Guérin’s work is admired for its lucidity, thorough research, and incisive Marxist critique.
Fascism and Big Business, French Edition, 2014: Libertalia.
European Fascism, edited by S.J. Woolf, and published in 1970, is a wide-ranging anthology that looks at fascism across various European countries, expanding upon earlier studies of the phenomenon. The collection brought together scholarly essays that analyzed political/economic conditions that gave rise to fascist movements in nations such as Italy, Germany, Spain, Austria, Hungary, and others. Further, Cornelissen stated that the work is primarily known for its information about places where fascism had been studied very little (England, Hungary, Norway, and Romania) and included biographies of Vidkun Quisling and Oswald Mosley.[16] Woolf’s method used comparative analyses and Marxist perspectives to discover fascism’s origins and legacy.[17]
Faschismus in Europa, 1981: Routledge Library Edition.
Conclusion and Epilogue
Cornelissen’s review of these milestone texts demonstrated how fascism was/is not only a historical deviation but an entrenched response to the crisis of capitalism. Each of these works contributed to the rich historiography of fascism and accomplished more than recording its evils — they exposed the structural elements, ideologies, and social failures making fascism possible. These books are not just guides of the past but can be considered as current and future warnings.
Further, Cornelissen’s takes were limited to Europe and provide traditional accounts of proverbial whiteness as it reacted to totalitarianism without much of a race synthesis. Where, for example, is DuBois’s 1940, The Negro in the Warsaw Ghetto? Something like Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents years later, also provided profound explorations of fascism as it manifested through the U.S. Southern historical legacies of racialized violence, gender oppression, environmental degradation, and ruling class divide. Through the study of power, sovereignty, human rights, development, peacebuilding, and reconciliation, Butler’s dystopian narratives showed how U.S. Southern fascism operated in contemporary reality, (as well as predicted the future) demanding an equally important intervention, might say Cornelissen.
Parable of the Talents, 1998: Seven Stories Press
In 2025, writing about fascism combines an analysis of contemporary global politics, where authoritarianism and ultra-nationalism continue to gain ground. The United States’ cult-like leadership and ruling class divides only makes something like Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland (AFD) that much more dangerous within the normalization of the far-right discourse. Furthermore, India, Israel, Argentina, Hungary, Azerbaijan, and Russia, etc. — all contribute to the far-right sentiments on the rise that embrace a xenophobic, racist, misogynist, transphobic and classist form of “populism.”
NOTES
1. Igor Cornelissen, Vrij Nederland, October 24, 1970. ↑
2. Leonard Schapiro, “What Is Fascism?” The New York Review of Books, February 12, 1970. ↑
3. S. J. Woolf, ed., The Nature of Fascism (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1968; U.S. ed., New York: Vintage Books, 1969). ↑
4. Arthur Rosenberg, History of the Weimar Republic, first published 1935 (Hamburg: Europäische Verlagsanstalt, 1970). ↑
5. Igor Cornelissen, Vrij Nederland, October 24, 1970. ↑
6. Igor Cornelissen, Vrij Nederland, October 24, 1970. ↑
7. Peter Kuckuk, ed., Revolution und Räterepublik in Bremen (Revolution and Soviet Republic in Bremen) (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1969). ↑
8. Igor Cornelissen, Vrij Nederland, October 24, 1970. ↑
9. Gerhard A. Ritter and Susanne Miller, eds., Die deutsche Revolution 1918–1919: Dokumente (The German Revolution Documents, 1918–1919) (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Verlag, 1968; repr., Hamburg: Hoffmann und Campe, 1975). ↑
10. Ernst Hanfstaengl, Zwischen Weißem und Braunem Haus: Memoiren eines politischen Außenseiters (Between the White and Brown Houses: Memoirs of a Political Outsider) (Munich: R. Piper Verlag, 1970). ↑
11. Igor Cornelissen, Vrij Nederland, October 24, 1970. ↑
12. Igor Cornelissen, Vrij Nederland, October 24, 1970. ↑
13. Stichting, ed., Over het Fascisme (On Fascism), 2 vols. (Amsterdam: Stichting, 1970). ↑
14. Igor Cornelissen, Vrij Nederland, October 24, 1970. ↑
15. Daniel Guérin, Fascisme et Grand Capital (Fascism and Big Business), first published 1936 (Paris: Libertalia, 2014). ↑
16. Igor Cornelissen, Vrij Nederland, October 24, 1970. ↑
17. S. J. Woolf, ed., European Fascism (London: Routledge, 1970). German edition: Faschismus in Europa, 1981. ↑
