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Genocide and Fascism : The Eliminationist Drive in Fascist Europe

Chapters 2 and 5 partly overlap with a chapter in a 2006 collection. The overlap is limited in content and extent. The 2006 publication focuses on three country case-studies, whereas Ch 2 draws on five additional countries. Ch 5 was expanded with new research on biopolitics and comparisons with interwar France and Italy, while the argument concerning ‘biomedical totalitarianism’, central in 2006, was not reproduced. The overall argument about the ‘uniqueness’ of the German case has thereby shifted. Chs 2 and 5 of the book (totaling 71pp) therefore offer a new and substantial discussion, compared to the 26pp 2006 chapter.

Genocide and Fascism undertakes an extensive comparative analysis within a complex conceptual/theoretical framework. It deals with two notoriously difficult concepts (fascism and genocide), examining how the former propelled the latter across Europe, 1918-45. The book develops an inter-disciplinary analytical model, hinging on the concept of ‘licence’, which borrows heavily from political theory, sociology, and psychology. The research encompasses ten countries as case-studies. This required the collection and analysis of a large body of archival sources (from Germany, Italy, USA) and printed material, which were collected from libraries, archives, and special collections in Europe and the USA.