Giovanni Gentile: Philosopher of Fascism

As soon as the author asserted Marxis-Leninism is a thing of the past .... I was weary of the thesis of his writing, and found it fundamentally flawed on just about every level of understanding of the dichotomy that exists between communisms and fascism.

The author views Italian Fascism as a revolutionary ideology for the economic development of a backwards early twentieth century Italy. As the title indicates, he focuses on Giovanni Gentile, a prominent Italian philosopher of the first few decades of the twentieth century. The author also considers the possible appeal of Fascist ideas and values in less-developed countries of today.Gregor places Gentile at the centre of Fascist political thought; Gentile developed the philosophical underpinnings of the totalitarian State through which Fascism effects change. Gentile, according to Gregor, developed an ethical totalitarianism in which personal responsibility and moral behaviour combine with an ethical State; the aims of the State being the same as the aims of the individual. While the individual cannot exist outside of the State this is not seen as a problem as Gentile believed that a society in which the individual found true fulfillment and complete belonging, i.e. a totalitarian society, was far superior to the liberal democratic ideal of a social contract among atomistic individuals.This book is a well written account of the philosophical development of Italian Fascism and an equally good introduction to the thought of Giovanni Gentile. Readers would do well to consider  Mussolini's Intellectuals: Fascist Social and Political Thought  as a companion to this book. Mussolini's Intellectuals: Fascist Social and Political Thought