100 Best Fascism Books of All Time (Updated for 2026)

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1

The Anatomy of Fascism

Robert O. Paxton

5.0

What is fascism? Many authors have proposed definitions, but most fail to move beyond the abstract. The esteemed historian Robert O. Paxton answers this question for the first time by focusing on the concrete: what the fascists did, rather than what they said. From the first violent uniformed bands beating up “enemies of the state,” through Mussolini’s rise to power, to Germany’s fascist radicaliz

Recommended by Ruth Ben-Ghiat.

Ruth Ben-Ghiat

Paxton set out to look at what fascists do, not what they say. He’s very good at mapping the geography of power, and what I call the ‘authoritarian bargains’ among groups, parties, organs of the state and leaders. [source]

2

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

Timothy Snyder

4.9

A historian of fascism offers a guide for surviving and resisting America’s turn towards authoritarianism.

On November 9th, millions of Americans woke up to the impossible: the election of Donald Trump as president. Against all predictions, one of the most-disliked presidential candidates in history had swept the electoral college, elevating a man with open contempt for democratic norms and institu

Recommended by George Saunders, Maya Wiley, and Tom Holland.

George Saunders

Please read this book. So smart, so timely. [source]

Maya Wiley

Prof. Tim Snyder, author of “In Tyranny” reminded us in that important little book that we must protect our institutions. #DOJ is one of our most important in gov’t for the rule of law. This is our collective house & #Barr should be evicted. https://t.co/PPxM9IMQUm [source]

Tom Holland

"There isn’t a page of this magnificent book that does not contain some fascinating detail and the narrative is held together with a novelist’s eye for character and theme." #Dominion https://t.co/FESSNxVDLC [source]

3

Fascism: A Warning

Madeleine Albright and HarperAudi

4.9

A personal and urgent examination of Fascism in the twentieth century and how its legacy shapes today’s world, written by one of America’s most admired public servants, the first woman to serve as U.S. secretary of state

A Fascist, observes Madeleine Albright, “is someone who claims to speak for a whole nation or group, is utterly unconcerned with the rights of others, and is willing to use violenc

Recommended by Brad Feld.

Brad Feld

Co-Founder/Foundry Group

Amy and I have been fortunate enough to get to know Madeleine Albright through our collective relationships at Wellesley. Amy knows her better, but I had an amazing dinner sitting next to her one night where I walked away thinking “I wish she had been born here so she could run for president.” The word “fascism” is once again being used so often as to mean nothing, so Albright spends 250 or so pages walking the reader through real fascism, how fascists behave, what they do to their countries (and societies), and what – as a citizen in a democratic country – to pay attention to. She covers the famous ones, but also some not so famous ones, especially those who came to power in the context of a theoretically democratic society. [source]

4

1984

George Orwell

4.9

A PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick

With extraordinary relevance and renewed popularity, George Orwell’s 1984 takes on new life in this hardcover edition.

“Orwell saw, to his credit, that the act of falsifying reality is only secondarily a way of changing perceptions. It is, above all, a way of asserting power.”—The New Yorker

In 1984, London is a grim city in the totalitarian state of Oceania

Recommended by Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, Emma Watson, and 16 others.

Richard Branson

Founder/Virgin Group

Today is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. [source]

Steve Jobs

Founder/Apple

called this book "one of his favorite" and recommended it to the hires. The book also inspired one the greatest TV ad (made by Jobs) [source]

Andra Zaharia

These books and their core ideas have stuck with me the most and continue to guide me when I hit crossroads along the way. [source]

5

The Origins of Totalitarianism

Hannah Arendt, Nadia May, et al

4.7

Hannah Arendt's definitive work on totalitarianism and an essential component of any study of twentieth-century political history

The Origins of Totalitarianism begins with the rise of anti-Semitism in central and western Europe in the 1800s and continues with an examination of European colonial imperialism from 1884 to the outbreak of World War I. Arendt explores the institutions and operations of

Recommended by Ruth Ben-Ghiat.

Ruth Ben-Ghiat

Her most useful (and her most chilling) conclusion for today is that totalitarian tools were not specific to Nazism or Stalinism or any ideology. Arendt’s words should be studied today by those who want to prevent the further spread of authoritarian regimes and the ideologies they are propagating. [source]

6

How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them

Jason Stanley

4.6

NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE - Fascist politics are running rampant in America today--and spreading around the world. A Yale philosopher identifies the ten pillars of fascist politics, and charts their horrifying rise and deep history.

As the child of refugees of World War II Europe and a renowned philosopher and scholar of propaganda, Jason Stanley has a deep understanding of how dem

7

How Democracies Die: What History Reveals About Our Future

Steven Levitsky, Daniel Ziblatt

4.6

Preview Summary

Donald Trump's presidency has raised a question that many of us never thought we'd be asking: Is our democracy in danger? Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt have spent more than twenty years studying the breakdown of democracies in Europe and Latin America, and they believe the answer is yes. Democracy no longer ends with a bang--in a revolution or military coup--but with a whim

Recommended by Barack Obama, Michael Mcfaul, Petra Costa, and 1 others.

Barack Obama

Former USA President

As 2018 draws to a close, I’m continuing a favorite tradition of mine and sharing my year-end lists. It gives me a moment to pause and reflect on the year through the books I found most thought-provoking, inspiring, or just plain loved. It also gives me a chance to highlight talented authors – some who are household names and others who you may not have heard of before. Here’s my best of 2018 list. [source]

Michael Mcfaul

Nothing more I’d rather have than a book endorsement from @SteveKerr ! And it is a great book. https://t.co/i9XCw5H9YX [source]

Petra Costa

@WeyandSabine our film "The Edge of Democracy" on Netflix was deeply inspired by this great book! [source]

8

Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin

Timothy Snyder

4.6

Americans call the Second World War “The Good War.” But before it even began, America’s wartime ally Josef Stalin had killed millions of his own citizens—and kept killing them during and after the war. Before Hitler was finally defeated, he had murdered six million Jews and nearly as many other Europeans. At war’s end, both the German and the Soviet killing sites fell behind the iron curtain, leav

Recommended by Eric Weinstein, Antony Beevor, Edward Lucas, and 1 others.

Eric Weinstein

Managing Director/Thiel Capital

Eric Weinstein recommended this book on Twitter. [source]

Antony Beevor

This book is about…the Stalinist repression of the areas known as the borderlands, which Snyder has termed the bloodlands. Snyder is looking at the deliberate mass murder of civilians in a particular zone of Europe between about 1930, at the start of the second Ukraine famine, and 1945. [source]

Edward Lucas

Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin offers the best account of the most important and terrible years of the last century, when Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler jointly consigned the territories and people between their two empires to the meat-grinder. [source]

9

Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning

Jonah Goldberg

4.6

10

Homage to Catalonia

George Orwell

4.5

In 1936 George Orwell travelled to Spain to report on the Civil War and instead joined the fight against the Fascists. This famous account describes the war and Orwell’s own experiences. Introduction by Lionel Trilling.

Recommended by Ben Shapiro, Guy Raz, Timothy Garton Ash, and 1 others.

Ben Shapiro

A lot of people have read Orwell's 1984, he actually wrote a book that's better. It's this book. [source]

Guy Raz

The other reason I picked this book is that Orwell, like Dan Schorr, was an outsider. When he went to Spain, he was an unknown. He wasn’t Hemingway. He wasn’t a well-connected intellectual. He just had this amazing eye for detail. He was an amazing observer, and he could write so powerfully. This book, to me, is just one of the classics of foreign reporting. [source]

Timothy Garton Ash

Anyone who wants to go off and write about Egypt, Tunisia or Libya today should pack a copy of Homage to Catalonia. It’s brilliant reportage. As you know, it opens with a vignette of an Italian militiaman in the barracks in Barcelona and he only saw this guy for a few moments but it captures the excitement. [source]

11

Brave New World

Aldous Huxley

4.5

Now reissued in a gorgeous hardcover edition: "one of the most prophetic dystopian works of the 20th century" (Wall Street Journal) must be read and understood by anyone concerned with preserving the human spirit in the face of our "brave new world." Huxley's masterpiece has become a bestseller once again after the American election.

Aldous Huxley's profoundly important classic of world literature,

Recommended by Sam Altman, Yuval Noah Harari, Andra Zaharia, and 9 others.

Yuval Noah Harari

Historian

The most prophetic book of the 20th century. Today many people would easily mistake it for a utopia. [source]

Andra Zaharia

These books and their core ideas have stuck with me the most and continue to guide me when I hit crossroads along the way. [source]

Catherine Mayer

It shows the ways in which technology, our need for certain creature comforts and consumer culture can be used to manipulate us. [source]

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12

The Plot Against America

Philip Roth

4.5

In an astonishing feat of narrative invention, our most ambitious novelist imagines an alternate version of American history. In 1940 Charles A. Lindbergh, heroic aviator and rabid isolationist, is elected President. Shortly thereafter, he negotiates a cordial "understanding" with Adolf Hitler, while the new government embarks on a program of folksy anti-Semitism.

For one boy growing up in Newark,

Recommended by Daniel Pink, Nate Bowling (Is Thankful For A/c), Sam Bourne, and 1 others.

Nate Bowling (Is Thankful For A/c)

@Sifill_LDF @soledadobrien The first and best Philip Roth book I read was called "The Plot Against America." It's wild as hell to watch it unfold IRL. https://t.co/ZWLkHjs5a2 https://t.co/shcD2kJ3Zi [source]

Sam Bourne

Roth’s what if? in this book is imagining that Roosevelt is no longer president, and Charles Lindbergh, an isolationist and anti-war politician, is president instead. So the idea is, What if America had stayed out of the war and was morally on the wrong side? [source]

Steven Amsterdam

The best way to tell stories of horrific times is not through the central players amassing power, but through the lives of the people off to the side, simply trying to survive. [source]

13

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany

William L. Shirer

4.5

Hitler boasted that The Third Reich would last a thousand years. It lasted only 12. But those 12 years contained some of the most catastrophic events Western civilization has ever known.

No other powerful empire ever bequeathed such mountains of evidence about its birth and destruction as the Third Reich. When the bitter war was over, and before the Nazis could destroy their files, the Allied deman

Recommended by Gunhee Park.

Gunhee Park

A few months back, I read a book called A Higher Call: An Incredible True Story of Combat and Chivalry in the War-Torn Skies of World War II that led me to want to learn more about Nazi Germany and Hitler, so I then picked up The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, which led me to wanting to learn more about Winston Churchill. [source]

14

The Coming of the Third Reich (The History of the Third Reich, #1)

Richard J. Evans

4.5

From one of the world's most distinguished historians, a magisterial new reckoning with Hitler's rise to power and the collapse of civilization in Nazi Germany.

In 1900 Germany was the most progressive and dynamic nation in Europe, the only country whose rapid technological and social growth and change challenged that of the United States. Its political culture was less authoritarian than Russia's

15

Animal Farm

George Orwell and Christopher Hitchens

4.5

Animal Farm is one of the most famous warnings ever written. Orwell's immortal satire - 'against Stalin' as he wrote to his French translator - can be read on many levels. With its piercing clarity and deceptively simple style it is no surprise that this novel is required reading for schoolchildren and politicians alike. This fable of the steadfast horses Boxer and Clover, the opportunistic pigs S

Recommended by Daniel Pink, Whitney Cummings, Vlad Tenev, and 4 others.

Whitney Cummings

Whitney Cummings recommended this book on the podcast "The Tim Ferriss Show". [source]

Vlad Tenev

When I was in sixth grade I remember being very upset by the ending of this book. [source]

Heather Brooke

I picked Animal Farm because it is an allegory about power and its seductive and corruptive influence on people regardless of their initial good intentions. [source]

16

V for Vendetta

Alan Moore, David Lloyd

4.5

"Remember, remember the fifth of November..."

A frightening and powerful tale of the loss of freedom and identity in a chillingly believable totalitarian world, V for Vendetta stands as one of the highest achievements of the comics medium and a defining work for creators Alan Moore and David Lloyd.

Set in an imagined future England that has given itself over to fascism, this groundbreaking story cap

Recommended by Boris Starling and Evan Goldberg.

Boris Starling

V for Vendetta is a graphic novel set in a future, fascist Britain. It mirrors 1984 in some ways. The fascists are called Norsefire. [source]

Evan Goldberg

I often give this book to people. [source]

17

The Handmaid's Tale

Margaret Atwood

4.5

Before The Testaments, there was The Handmaid’s Tale: an instant classic and eerily prescient cultural phenomenon, from “the patron saint of feminist dystopian fiction” (New York Times).

The Handmaid’s Tale is a novel of such power that the reader will be unable to forget its images and its forecast. Set in the near future, it describes life in what was once the United States and is now called the

Recommended by Daniel Pink, Emma Watson, Catherine Mayer, and 3 others.

Catherine Mayer

Atwood takes all the hard information about gender inequality that she sees around her and then turns it up a few notches. [source]

Cliff Bleszinski

@HandmaidsOnHulu Done. Love the show, book is a classic, can't wait for season 2. [source]

Grady Booch

I read this several years ago but — much like Orwell’s 1984 — it seems particularly relevant given our current political morass. [source]

18

Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil

Hannah Arendt

4.5

Preview Summary

Originally appearing as a series of articles in The New Yorker, Hannah Arendt’s authoritative and stunning report on the trial of Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann sparked a flurry of debate upon its publication. This revised edition includes material that came to light after the trial, as well as Arendt’s postscript directly addressing the controversy that arose over her account. A major journalistic tr

Recommended by Dr. Phil Zimbardo, Daniel Pick, David Bell, and 1 others.

Dr. Phil Zimbardo

Talks about Eichmann as illustrating the banality of evil. [source]

Daniel Pick

The trial focused public attention on the individual high bureaucrat who had such personal responsibility in the Final Solution. There was, in a way, this enigma of what went on in Eichmann’s mind. [source]

David Bell

Political philosopher Arendt sees the work of the Nazis as the inevitable result of colonialism and industrialisation. [source]

19

The Complete Maus

Art SPIEGELMAN

4.5

Combined for the first time here are Maus I: A Survivor's Tale and Maus II - the complete story of Vladek Spiegelman and his wife, living and surviving in Hitler's Europe. By addressing the horror of the Holocaust through cartoons, the author captures the everyday reality of fear and is able to explore the guilt, relief and extraordinary sensation of survival - and how the children of survivors ar

Recommended by Susan Bordo.

Susan Bordo

It’s about the Holocaust. It’s also a comic book, in which the various characters are depicted as animals – the Jews as mice, the Nazis as cats. [source]

20

Fascism: What It Is and How to Fight It

Leon Trotsky

4.4

Why fascism was able to conquer only in those countries where social democratic or Stalinist parties blocked the workers and their allies from utilizing a revolutionary situation to remove the capitalists from power.

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21

The Mass Psychology of Fascism

Wilhelm Reich, Vincent R. Carfagno

4.4

In this classic study, Reich provides insight into the phenomenon of fascism, which continues to ravage the international community in ways great and small.

Drawing on his medical experiences with men and women of various classes, races, nations, and religious beliefs, Reich refutes the still generally held notion that fascism is a specific characteristic of certain nationalities or a political par

Recommended by Daniel Pick.

Daniel Pick

One of his key suggestions is that sexuality and politics could be bound together in complex and often disguised ways, and that a huge amount of libido was directed or, as he would have seen it, horrifically misdirected into fascism. Something was “played out” in politics that had to do with very deep frustrations. I think Reich had a strong belief that sexual liberation might lead to greater tolerance and be conducive to anti-fascism. Conversely that repression and frustration might go some way to explaining the attractions of demagogic figures. It was like a very sinister form of sublimation. The German historian Klaus Theweleit took this further in Male Fantasies, published in the 1970s, with an analysis of the torrent of sexual and political hatreds exposed in letters by early Nazi enthusiasts, most notably amongst those who made up armed and often violent organised right-wing gangs or units, notably the Freikorps after 1918. [source]

22

American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America

Chris Hedges

4.4

Twenty-five years ago, when Pat Robertson and other radio and televangelists first spoke of the United States becoming a Christian nation that would build a global Christian empire, it was hard to take such hyperbolic rhetoric seriously. Today, such language no longer sounds like hyperbole but poses, instead, a very real threat to our freedom and our way of life. In American Fascists, Chris Hedges

Recommended by Donté Stallworth.

Donté Stallworth

@JordanUhl this book is almost 13 years old, but it’s never been more important than right now. the clairvoyance of @ChrisLynnHedges in this book is amazing [source]

23

A History of Fascism, 1914-1945

Stanley G. Payne

4.4

24

Starship Troopers

Robert A. Heinlein

4.3

The historians can’t seem to settle whether to call this one "The Third Space War" (or the fourth), or whether "The First Interstellar War" fits it better. We just call it “The Bug War." Everything up to then and still later were "incidents," "patrols," or "police actions." However, you are just as dead if you buy the farm in an "incident" as you are if you buy it in a declared war...

In one of Rob

Recommended by Clancy Brown and Daniel H Wilson.

Clancy Brown

@theBrianBurgess I have not read anything by John Steakley. I have read Robert Heinlein's book STARSHIP TROOPERS which is the book the movie is based upon. I recommend that one to you and, if you like future-war stories, FOREVER WAR by Joe Haldeman is one of the best. [source]

Daniel H Wilson

This is a story of war in the future with advanced weaponry against aliens. This story is so grounded, and so realistic – the way that the characters interact, their language, their lingo, the way the military is set up, the way they utilise their weaponry – everything is just pitch perfect. When you read it, you pretty quickly find – at least I did – that you aren’t worried that it is science fiction. I was thinking, ‘This is just so real, these are soldiers, and this could be Spartans fighting shoulder to shoulder – this could be a war that had occurred at any time.’ It’s just human soldiers fighting together, dying together, and that’s really what I took away from this – not the technology, or the crazy sci-fi aspects, and certainly not the political overtones. The politics are not my favourite part about this book, although Heinlein fans might have a different perspective. [source]

25

It Can't Happen Here

Sinclair Lewis, Michael Meyer, Gary Scharnhorst

4.3

Since it was written in a time when the English was somewhat different in America, the reader must adjust
to the way Lewis wrote the book. However, old-timey sayings aside, this is an incredible piece of fiction.
It Can't Happen Here parallels what an American regime, like that of Adolph Hitler's in Germany would
be like as it unfolded. The main character is a small town newspaper editor, who enjo

Recommended by Daniel Pink and Ryan Holiday.

Ryan Holiday

Author

If you want to be scared about the next four years, pick up Sinclair Lewis’s It Can’t Happen Here (because, well, it may have just happened here). [source]

26

The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

Eric Hoffer

4.3

A stevedore on the San Francisco docks in the 1940s, Eric Hoffer wrote philosophical treatises in his spare time while living in the railroad yards. The True Believer -- the first and most famous of his books -- was made into a bestseller when President Eisenhower cited it during one of the earliest television press conferences.Completely relevant and essential for understanding the world today, T

Recommended by Reid Hoffman, Eric Weinstein, George Raveling, and 1 others.

Eric Weinstein

Managing Director/Thiel Capital

Eric Weinstein recommended this book on Twitter. [source]

George Raveling

This, to me, is one of the true classics of all time. [source]

Jessica Stern

This is a brilliant book. Hoffer points out that zealots can be attracted to zealotry itself. Leaders of revolutionary movements go after people who are so dissatisfied with the status quo, and with themselves, that they are willing to put everything at risk, to create a new, better, purer world. The trick is to provide them with an identity as part of something bigger than themselves. One of the fascinating things Hoffer does is to look at how the Nazi and Communist Parties were recruiting from the same pool. [source]

27

Night

Elie Wiesel

4.3

Night is Elie Wiesel's masterpiece, a candid, horrific, and deeply poignant autobiographical account of his survival as a teenager in the Nazi death camps. This new translation by Marion Wiesel, Elie's wife and frequent translator, presents this seminal memoir in the language and spirit truest to the author's original intent. And in a substantive new preface, Elie reflects on the enduring importan

Recommended by Johanna Reiss and Steven Katz.

Johanna Reiss

Elie Wiesel wrote..that he was considering running into the barbed wire once, but he didn’t because his father needed him. [source]

Steven Katz

Probably the best known memoir that has been written about the experience of the death camps. [source]

28

The Book Thief

Markus Zusak

4.3

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will be busier still.

By her brother's graveside, Liesel's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Gravedigger's Handbook, left behind there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, wit

Recommended by Lydia Ruffles.

Lydia Ruffles

The [source]

29

Hitler: 1889-1936 Hubris (Hitler, #1)

Ian Kershaw

4.3

From his illegitimate birth in a small Austrian village to his fiery death in a bunker under the Reich chancellery in Berlin, Adolf Hitler left a murky trail, strewn with contradictory tales & overgrown with self-created myths. One truth prevails: the sheer scale of the evils that he unleashed on the world has made him a demonic figure without equal in this century. Kershaw's Hitler brings us clos

30

The Third Reich in Power (The History of the Third Reich, #2)

Richard J. Evans

4.3

The definitive account of Germany's malign transformation under Hitler's total rule and the implacable march to war.

By the middle of 1933, the democracy of the Weimar Republic had been transformed into the police state of the Third Reich, mobilized around the cult of the leader, Adolf Hitler. If this could happen in less than a year, what would the future hold? Only the most fervent Nazi party l

31

In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin

Erik Larson

4.2

Erik Larson, New York Times bestselling author of Devil in the White City, delivers a remarkable story set during Hitler’s rise to power.

The time is 1933, the place, Berlin, when William E. Dodd becomes America’s first ambassador to Hitler’s Nazi Germany in a year that proved to be a turning point in history.
A mild-mannered professor from Chicago, Dodd brings along his wife, son, and flamboyant d

Recommended by Daniel Hamermesh and Steve Schmidt.

Daniel Hamermesh

At a time of increased danger of totalitarianism in the U.S., reading a history of an insider’s view of its growth in Germany in the 1930s gives a good perspective on our contemporary problems, as well as being fascinating history and biography in its own right. [source]

Steve Schmidt

@egayle333 Ellyn, with respect Hitler was always clear about his intent. A great book to read from a US perspective is In the Garden of Beasts. Trump is much more analogous to Mussolini. [source]

32

Christ Stopped at Eboli

Carlo Levi

4.2

'We're not Christians, Christ stopped short of here, at Eboli.' Exiled to a remote and barren corner of Italy for his opposition to Mussolini, Carlo Levi entered a world cut off from history and the state, hedged in by custom and sorrow, without comfort or solace, where, eternally patient, the peasants lived in an age-old stillness and in the presence of death - for Christ did stop at Eboli.

Recommended by Paul Theroux and Paula Fredriksen.

Paul Theroux

I chose this book because not many people know it – it’s hardly on every bookshelf. Carlo Levi was an Italian Jew from Florence, banished in the 1930s by the Mussolini government for criticising the war in Ethiopia. He is sent to the ends of the earth, and it happens that the ends of the earth in Italy is southern Italy. [source]

Paula Fredriksen

This is such a beautiful memoir. Levi was in political exile for a year under Mussolini, sent to a very impoverished town in the south of Italy. Levi himself is from Turin – aristocratic, well educated, left-leaning politically, very urban and urbane. This tiny dusty town shocks him, both its poverty and its class structure. [source]

33

The Apprentice's Sorcerer: Liberal Tradition and Fascism

Ishay Landa

4.2

20th-century European Fascism is conventionally described as a fierce assault on liberal politics, culture and economics. Departing from this analysis, Landa highlights the long overlooked critical affinities between the liberal tradition and fascism. Far from being the antithesis of liberalism, fascism, both in its ideology and its practice, was substantially, if dialectically, indebted to libera

34

The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy

Adam Tooze

4.2

In this groundbreaking new history, Adam Tooze provides the clearest picture to date of the Nazi war machine and its undoing. There was no aspect of Nazi power untouched by economics�it was Hitler�s obsession and the reason the Nazis came to power in the first place. The Second World War was fought, in Hitler�s view, to create a European empire strong enough to take on the United States. But as Th

35

Revolt Against the Modern World

Julius Evola

4.2

In what many consider to be his masterwork, Evola contrasts the characteristics of the modern world with those of traditional societies, from politics and institutions to views on life and death.
"No idea is as absurd as the idea of progress, which together with its corollary notion of the superiority of modern civilization, has created its own "positive" alibis by falsifying history, by insinuatin

36

Modernism and Fascism: The Sense of a Beginning under Mussolini and Hitler

Roger Griffin

4.2

Intellectual debates surrounding modernity, modernism and fascism continue to be active and hotly contested. In this ambitious book, renowned expert on fascism Roger Griffin analyzes Western modernity and the regimes of Mussolini and Hitler and offers a pioneering new interpretation of the links between these apparently contradictory phenomena. Using a wealth of examples, Griffin describes how mod

37

Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland

Christopher R. Browning

4.2

Christopher R. Browning’s shocking account of how a unit of average middle-aged Germans became the cold-blooded murderers of tens of thousands of Jews—now with a new afterword and additional photographs.

Ordinary Men is the true story of Reserve Police Battalion 101 of the German Order Police, which was responsible for mass shootings as well as round-ups of Jewish people for deportation to Nazi dea

Recommended by Hester Vaizey, Lawrence Kaplan, Norman Naimark, and 1 others.

Hester Vaizey

One of my students cited this book as the reason that he carried on doing history. [source]

Lawrence Kaplan

The takeaway from reading this horror-filled book is that depredations on the scale of those that Browning describes can be perpetrated anywhere and by anyone. [source]

Norman Naimark

The essential lesson of Ordinary Men is that genocide is not the exclusive preserve of fanatics, racist thugs and homicidal maniacs. It is part of the human condition, especially of humans living in society. [source]

38

Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right

Jane Mayer

4.2

Preview Summary

Who are the immensely wealthy right-wing ideologues shaping the fate of America today? From the bestselling author of The Dark Side, an electrifying work of investigative journalism that uncovers the agenda of this powerful group.

In her new preface, Jane Mayer discusses the results of the most recent election and Donald Trump's victory, and how, despite much discussion to the contrary, this was a

Recommended by Brad Feld and Avi Asherschapiro.

Avi Asherschapiro

Who could forget that great book of reportage, "Dark Money," about the shadowy mechanization of the Nurses Union & the Climate Change Youth Movement. [source]

39

Survival in Auschwitz

Primo Levi

4.2

The true and harrowing account of Primo Levi’s experience at the German concentration camp of Auschwitz and his miraculous survival; hailed by The Times Literary Supplement as a “true work of art, this edition includes an exclusive conversation between the author and Philip Roth.

In 1943, Primo Levi, a twenty-five-year-old chemist and “Italian citizen of Jewish race,” was arrested by Italian fascis

40

The Wave

Todd Strasser

4.2

The Wave is based on a true incident that occurred in a high school history class in Palo Alto, California, in 1969.

The powerful forces of group pressure that pervaded many historic movements such as Nazism are recreated in the classroom when history teacher Burt Ross introduces a "new" system to his students. And before long The Wave, with its rules of "strength through discipline, community, and

41

The Doctrine of Fascism

Benito Mussolini

4.2

This article, co-written by Giovanni Gentile, is considered to be the most complete articulation of Mussolini's political views. This is the only complete official translation we know of on the web, copied directly from an official Fascist government publication of 1935, Fascism Doctrine and Institutions, by Benito Mussolini, Ardita Publishers, Rome, pages 7-42. This translation includes all the f

42

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea

Barbara Demick, Karen White, et al

4.2

Nothing to Envy follows the lives of six North Koreans over fifteen years—a chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il-sung, the unchallenged rise to power of his son Kim Jong-il, and the devastation of a far-ranging famine that killed one-fifth of the population.

Taking us into a landscape most of us have never before seen, award-winning journalist Barbara Demick brings to life what it means to

Recommended by Hyeonseo Lee.

Hyeonseo Lee

She includes great details that show everyday life in North Korea. [source]

43

They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933–45

Milton Mayer

4.2

“When this book was first published it received some attention from the critics but none at all from the public. Nazism was finished in the bunker in Berlin and its death warrant signed on the bench at Nuremberg.”

That’s Milton Mayer, writing in a foreword to the 1966 edition of They Thought They Were Free. He’s right about the critics: the book was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1956.

44

Alt-America: The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump

David Neiwert

4.2

The story of the remarkable resurgence of right-wing extremists in the United States

Just as Donald Trump’s victorious campaign for the US presidency shocked liberal Americans, the seemingly sudden national prominence of white supremacists, xenophobes, militia leaders, and mysterious ‘Alt-Right’ leaders mystifies many. But the extreme right has been growing steadily in the US since the 1990s, with

Recommended by David Gorski.

David Gorski

I also note that is a great book, essential reading to understand how we got to where we are today with the radical right. [source]

45

Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism

Michael Parenti

4.2

Blackshirts & Reds explores some of the big issues of our time: fascism, capitalism, communism, revolution, democracy, and ecology—terms often bandied about but seldom explored in the original and exciting way that has become Michael Parenti’s trademark.

Parenti shows how “rational fascism” renders service to capitalism, how corporate power undermines democracy, and how revolutions are a mass empow

46

Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning

Timothy Snyder

4.2

A brilliant, haunting, and profoundly original portrait of the defining tragedy of our time.

In this epic history of extermination and survival, Timothy Snyder presents a new explanation of the great atrocity of the twentieth century, and reveals the risks that we face in the twenty-first. Based on new sources from eastern Europe and forgotten testimonies from Jewish survivors, Black Earth recoun

47

Hitler: 1936-1945 Nemesis (Hitler, #2)

Ian Kershaw

4.2

The New Yorker declared the first volume of Ian Kershaw's two-volume masterpiece "as close to definitive as anything we are likely to see," and that promise is fulfilled in this stunning second volume. As Nemesis opens, Adolf Hitler has achieved absolute power within Germany and triumphed in his first challenge to the European powers. Idolized by large segments of the population and firmly support

48

Escape from Freedom

Erich Fromm

4.2

Recommended by Dan Sullivan and David Heinemeier Hansson.

David Heinemeier Hansson

Escape from Freedom examines what happened to the human psyche when we went from a medieval caste system to the modern world. As we gained freedom from all sorts of oppressions, we also got detached from a predictable and safe role in society. That anxiety is often difficult to cope with, especially when things don’t turn out the way we aspired to. Fromm argues that we need to balance this freedom from with just as much freedom to. Positive freedom, not just negative freedom. The book was written in 1941 and obviously colored by the rise of fascism and the world wars. But it’s message is as timely today, in an age of populism and unease. It draws a compelling connection between the loss of identity and belonging with the appeal of authoritarian figures. That it’s a human response to turn away from freedom when that freedom turns life into anxiety and disappointment. So from Trump to Erdogan, there’s strong public support. [source]

49

Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History (Maus, #1)

Art Spiegelman

4.2

A story of a Jewish survivor of Hitler's Europe and his son, a cartoonist who tries to come to terms with his father's story and history itself.

Recommended by James Altucher.

50

Mother Night

Kurt Vonnegut

4.2

Librarian note: Alternate cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

Mother Night is a daring challenge to our moral sense. American Howard W. Campbell, Jr., a spy during World War II, is now on trial in Israel as a Nazi war criminal. But is he really guilty? In this brilliant book rife with true gallows humor, Vonnegut turns black and white into a chilling shade of gray with a verdict that wil

Recommended by Derek Sivers.

Derek Sivers

Derek Sivers recommended this book in the book "Tools of Titans". [source]

51

The Periodic Table

Primo Levi

4.2

The Periodic Table by Primo Levi is an impassioned response to the Holocaust: Consisting of 21 short stories, each possessing the name of a chemical element, the collection tells of the author's experiences as a Jewish-Italian chemist before, during, and after Auschwitz in luminous, clear, and unfailingly beautiful prose. It has been named the best science book ever by the Royal Institution of Gre

Recommended by Tim Radford and William Fiennes.

Tim Radford

It’s a life story by a chemist seen through the prism of an elemental substance. Some of it doesn’t work very well and some of it works very well. There’s a lovely chapter on iron that refers to the arrival of the Fascist era. There’s a much more personal account involving mine tailings and the extraction of precious metals from mine tailing, which he was employed at. That gives him a chance to contemplate the nature of matter itself and why the stuff that’s in the ground is the same as the stuff that actually composes our bodies. And why things that happen in chemistry can be subtly different if you alter the element that’s involved in the process. All of it is illuminating. You read it and you understand the world around you much better for having read even a sentence of Levi. [source]

William Fiennes

They’re a mixture of short stories and autobiographical essays, or essays in autobiography. Levi uses the elements from the periodic table as a way of organising memory. He uses 21 elements, each as a doorway or wormhole into a particular area of his experience, into a particular memory – but leaving out his time in Auschwitz, because he’d already written about that. You get his early interest in chemistry, his early experiments, the friends he studied with, the atmosphere of the laboratories and the characters of the professors who taught him. It’s about his interest in matter, the stuff the world is made of, as counterposed to spirit. He wrote another great book, The Wrench, which is a series of soliloquies from a mechanic called Faussone. Levi is the scribe as Faussone describes all these things he’s built – bridges, oil derricks – and the excitement of putting things together. In The Periodic Table, you also get that fascination with the stuff the world’s made of and we’re made of – the wonder of it. [source]

52

The Third Reich at War (The History of the Third Reich, #3)

Richard J. Evans

4.1

The final volume in Richard J. Evans's masterly trilogy on the history of Nazi Germany traces the rise and fall of German military might, the mobilization of a "people's community" to serve a war of conquest, and Hitler's campaign of racial subjugation and genocide.
Already hailed as "a masterpiece" (William Grimes in The New York Times) and "the most comprehensive history… of the Third Reich" (I

53

Three Faces Of Fascism: Action Francaise, Italian Fascism, National Socialism

Ernst Nolte

4.1

(from the back)
Charles Maurras, Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler.
Three different men, in three different countries. One was a narrowly religious, fiercely reactionary journalist. One a former Marxist converted to a doctrine of personal power and national glory. One a failed artist and ex-Army corporal with grandiose visions and a flair for public speaking.
At other times, all would have been consider

54

The Nazi Seizure of Power: The Experience of a Single German Town 1922-1945

William Sheridan Allen

4.1

William Sheridan Allen's research provides an intimate, comprehensive study of the mechanics of revolution and an analysis of the Nazi Party's subversion of democracy. Beginning at the end of the Weimar Republic, Allen examines the entire period of the Nazi Revolution within a single locality.

Tackling one of the 20th century's greatest dilemmas, Allen demonstrates how this dictatorship subtly surm

55

Mussolini's Intellectuals: Fascist Social and Political Thought

A. James Gregor

4.1

Fascism has traditionally been characterized as irrational and anti-intellectual, finding expression exclusively as a cluster of myths, emotions, instincts, and hatreds. This intellectual history of Italian Fascism--the product of four decades of work by one of the leading experts on the subject in the English-speaking world--provides an alternative account. A. James Gregor argues that Italian Fas

56

Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America

Sarah Kendzior

4.1

57

Hitler's American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law

James Q. Whitman

4.1

How American race law provided a blueprint for Nazi Germany

Nazism triumphed in Germany during the high era of Jim Crow laws in the United States. Did the American regime of racial oppression in any way inspire the Nazis? The unsettling answer is yes. In Hitler's American Model, James Whitman presents a detailed investigation of the American impact on the notorious Nuremberg Laws, the centerpiece a

58

The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America

Timothy Snyder

4.1

With the end of the Cold War, the victory of liberal democracy was thought to be absolute. Observers declared the end of history, confident in a peaceful, globalized future. But we now know this to be premature. Authoritarianism first returned in Russia, as Putin developed a political system dedicated solely to the consolidation and exercise of power. In the last six years, it has creeped from eas

Recommended by Yuval Noah Harari.

Yuval Noah Harari

Historian

A brilliant and disturbing analysis, which should be read by anyone wishing to understand the political crisis currently engulfing the world. [source]

59

Fascism: A Very Short Introduction

Kevin Passmore

4.1

What is fascism? Is it revolutionary? Or is it reactionary? This book argues that it is both: fascism unleashes violence against the left and ethnic minorities, but also condemns the bourgeoisie for its "softness." Kevin Passmore opens his book with a series of "scenes from fascist life"--a secret meeting of the Romanian Iron Guard; Mussolini meeting the king of Italy; a rally of Hungarian doctors

60

Fascist Voices: An Intimate History of Mussolini's Italy

Christopher Duggan

4.1

Christopher Duggan's new history of fascist Italy explores how the movement became embodied in the person of Benito Mussolini who occupied for many an almost divine status and gave millions of men and women a sense of pride and hope, offering the prospect of national regeneration after decades of disappointment.

A work of exceptional authority and originality, Fascist Voices makes use of rarely exa

Cover unavailable

61

Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America

Nancy MacLean

4.1

Behind today’s headlines of billionaires taking over our government is a secretive political establishment with long, deep, and troubling roots. The capitalist radical right has been working not simply to change who rules, but to fundamentally alter the rules of democratic governance. But billionaires did not launch this movement; a white intellectual in the embattled Jim Crow South did. Democracy

Recommended by Vote Dem For The Planet.

Vote Dem For The Planet

@DeVos1990 @CommentOnTWLB @GOP Yes, yes, yes! Great book, and a huge warning? [source]

62

Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook

Mark Bray

4.1

As long as there has been fascism, there has been anti-fascism—also known as "antifa." Born out of resistance to Mussolini and Hitler in Europe during the 1920s and '30s, the antifa movement has suddenly burst into the headlines amidst opposition to the Trump administration and the alt-right. They could be seen in news reports, clad all in black with balaclavas covering their faces, fighting polic

63

The Tattooist of Auschwitz

Heather Morris

4.1

Preview Summary

In April 1942, Lale Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew, is forcibly transported to the concentration camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau. When his captors discover that he speaks several languages, he is put to work as a Tätowierer (the German word for tattooist), tasked with permanently marking his fellow prisoners.

Imprisoned for over two and a half years, Lale witnesses horrific atrocities and barbarism—but also

Cover unavailable

64

KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps

Nikolaus Wachsmann

4.1

In a landmark work of history, Nikolaus Wachsmann offers an unprecedented, integrated account of the Nazi concentration camps from their inception in 1933 through their demise, seventy years ago, in the spring of 1945. The Third Reich has been studied in more depth than virtually any other period in history, and yet until now there has been no history of the camp system that tells the full story o

65

Marxism, Fascism, and Totalitarianism: Chapters in the Intellectual History of Radicalism

A. James Gregor

4.1

66

Chess Story

Stefan Zweig, Joel Rotenberg, Peter Gay

4.1

Chess Story, also known as The Royal Game, is the Austrian master Stefan Zweig's final achievement, which was completed in Brazilian exile and sent off to his American publisher only a matter of days before his suicide in 1942. It is the only story in which Zweig looks at Nazism, and he does so with characteristic emphasis on the psychological.

Travelers by ship from New York to Buenos Aires find t

67

Il fascismo eterno

Umberto Eco, Alberto Bergamini, et al

4.1

“Ritengo sia possibile indicare una lista di caratteristiche tipiche di quello che vorrei chiamare l’‘Ur-Fascismo’, o il ‘fascismo eterno’. L’Ur-Fascismo è ancora intorno a noi, talvolta in abiti civili. Sarebbe così confortevole, per noi, se qualcuno si affacciasse sulla scena del mondo e dicesse: ‘Voglio riaprire Auschwitz, voglio che le camicie nere sfilino ancora in parata sulle piazze italian

68

Fascism and Big Business

Daniel Guerin, Francis Merrill, et al.

4.1

Examines the development of fascism in Germany and Italy and its relationship with the ruling capitalist families there.

69

Inside the Third Reich

Albert Speer

4.1

Written by Hitler's Minister of Armaments and War Production, the man who kept Germany armed and the war machine running even after Hitler's mystique had faded, this memoir gives us as complete a view as we will ever get of the inside of the Nazi state. B&W photos.

Cover unavailable

70

The Death of Democracy: Hitler's Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic

Benjamin Carter Hett

4.1

A riveting account of how the Nazi Party came to power and how the failures of the Weimar Republic and the shortsightedness of German politicians allowed it to happen.

Why did democracy fall apart so quickly and completely in Germany in the 1930s? How did a democratic government allow Adolf Hitler to seize power? In The Death of Democracy, Benjamin Carter Hett answers these questions, and the story

71

Hitler's Empire: How the Nazis Ruled Europe

Mark Mazower

4.1

Drawing on an unprecedented variety of sources, Mark Mazower reveals how the Nazis designed, maintained, and ultimately lost their European empire and offers a chilling vision of the world Hitler would have made had he won the war.

Germany's forces achieved, in just a few years, the astounding domination of a landmass and population larger than that of the United States. Control of this vast territ

Cover unavailable

72

Kaputt

Curzio Malaparte, Cesare Foligno, Dan Hofstadter

4.1

Curzio Malaparte was a disaffected supporter of Mussolini with a taste for danger and high living. Sent by an Italian paper during World War II to cover the battle on the Eastern Front, Malaparte secretly wrote this terrifying report from the abyss, which became an international bestseller when it was published after the war. Telling of the siege of Leningrad, of glittering dinner parties with Naz

73

Dark Continent: Europe's Twentieth Century

Mark Mazower

4.1

"A useful, important book that reminds us, at the right time, how hard [European unity] has been, and how much care must be taken to avoid the terrible old temptations." --Los Angeles Times

Dark Continent provides an alternative history of the twentieth century, one in which the triumph of democracy was anything but a forgone conclusion and fascism and communism provided rival political solutions t

74

Fascism: 100 Questions Asked and Answered

Oswald Mosley

4.1

After World War Two, 'fascist' became the F word of political debate to be applied liberally against anyone who left-wing polemicists disliked. But what did it really mean and what did its British supporters really stand for? In this pre-War book written in convenient Question and Answer form by Oswald Mosley, the Leader of the British Union of Fascists challenges the simplistic nature of the ster

75

The Birth of Fascist Ideology: From Cultural Rebellion to Political Revolution

Zeev Sternhell

4.1

When The Birth of Fascist Ideology was first published in 1989 in France and in 1993 in Italy, it aroused a storm of response, both positive and negative. In Sternhell's view, fascism was much more than an episode in the history of Italy. He argues here that it possessed a coherent ideology with deep roots in European civilization. Long before fascism became a political force, he maintains, it was

76

The Nature of Fascism

Roger Griffin

4.1

The Nature of Fascism draws on the history of ideas as well as on political, social and psychological theory to produce a synthesis of ideas and approaches that will be invaluable for students.
Roger Griffin locates the driving force of fascism in a distinctive form of utopian myth, that of the regenerated national community, destined to rise up from the ashes of a decadent society. He lays bare t

77

The Big Lie: Exposing the Nazi Roots of the American Left

Dinesh D'Souza

4.1

"Of course, everything [D'Souza] says here is accurate... But it's not going to sit well with people on the American left who, of course, are portraying themselves as the exact opposite of all of this." —RUSH LIMBAUGH

The explosive new book from Dinesh D'Souza, author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers Hillary's America, America, and Obama's America.

What is "the big lie" of the Democratic Party

Cover unavailable

78

I Will Bear Witness 1942-45 A Diary of the Nazi Years

Victor Klemperer, Martin Chalmers

4.0

Destined to take its place alongside The Diary of Anne Frank and Elie Wiesel's Night as one of the great classics of the Holocaust, I Will Bear Witness is a timeless work of literature, the most eloquent and acute testament to have emerged from Hitler's Germany. Volume Two begins in 1942, the year the Final Solution was formally proposed, and carries us through to the Allied bombing of Dresden and

Recommended by Chris Mullin.

Chris Mullin

In my opinion what a good diarist needs are an eye for detail, a light touch, and considerable self-discipline. You’ve got to make a record every day and the busier you are – at the top end of politics you do tend to be rather busy – the more difficult it is. As far as politics is concerned, the most successful diaries seem to be those who never made it too far up the greasy pole. Those who did either don’t have the time, or are too busy self-justifying to observe accurately. I think an element of ego is required as well because one is exaggerating one’s relevance and giving undue weight to one’s own contribution, because that’s what tends to stick in the mind. [source]

79

Behemoth: The Structure & Practice of National Socialism, 1933-1944

Franz L. Neumann

4.0

80

The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation

Ian Kershaw

4.0

This widely-used text on the Nazi regime explores the complex issues historians face when they interpret the Third Reich. Kershaw expertly synthesizes data and evaluates complex historiography looking at the major themes and debates among scholars about Nazism. Drawing on the findings of a wide range of research, particularly the work of German scholars which has not been widely available in Engli

81

The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939

Antony Beevor

4.0

A fresh and acclaimed account of the Spanish Civil War by the bestselling author of Stalingrad and The Fall Of Berlin 1945

Beevor's Ardennes 1944: The Battle of the Bulge is now available from Viking Books

To mark the 70th anniversary of the Spanish Civil War's outbreak, Antony Beevor has written a completely updated and revised account of one of the most bitter and hard-fought wars of the twentie

Cover unavailable

82

Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich

Norman Ohler

4.0

A fast-paced narrative that discovers a surprising perspective on World War II: Nazi Germany’s all-consuming reliance on drugs

The Nazi regime preached an ideology of physical, mental, and moral purity. But as Norman Ohler reveals in this gripping new history, the Third Reich was saturated with drugs. On the eve of World War II, Germany was a pharmaceutical powerhouse, and companies such as Merck

83

Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy

Serhii PLOKHY

4.0

On 26 April 1986 at 1.23am a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Soviet Ukraine exploded. While the authorities scrambled to understand what was occurring, workers, engineers, firefighters and those living in the area were abandoned to their fate. The blast put the world on the brink of nuclear annihilation, contaminating over half of Europe with radioactive fallout.

In Chernobyl, award

Recommended by Kate Brown and Stephen Bush.

Kate Brown

He’s really good here at laying down the background of the disaster itself, the plant’s construction, the days leading up to it, the moments the accident occurred. He talks about the accident itself, the delay in informing the public, the censorship of news, the trial of the nuclear power plant operators who he thinks were treated as scapegoats, and the political outcomes of all this deception. [source]

Stephen Bush

It’s just a really thrilling book, as well as being a really interesting history of that time. But the reason why I think it’s also a brilliant political book is fundamentally what Plokhii reveals in his writing, is that the failure of Chernobyl was fundamentally a failure of a political system, as well as a failure of a scientific system. [source]

Cover unavailable

84

The Captive Mind

Czesław Miłosz

4.0

Written in Paris in the early 1950s, this book created instant controversy in its analysis of modern society that had allowed itself to be hypnotized by socio-political doctrines, and to accept totalitarian terror on the strength of a hypothetical future.

Recommended by Anne Applebaum and Timothy Snyder.

Anne Applebaum

The Captive Mind isn’t a straight memoir. Although Milosz is writing about his own life and his past, he is also grappling with a larger subject: How his generation of liberal intellectuals came to collaborate with, and work alongside, the Communist party. And he is trying to understand his own behaviour: Why did I act that way? [source]

Timothy Snyder

Yes. Milosz tried to explain – as the title suggests – how thinking people could accept communism from inside the communist system. How does one not resist or just endure, but actually place one’s mind in the system? He points to a number of ways in which the mind can adapt. You can accept one larger truth that guides your interpretation of all of the smaller untruths, accept a vision of the future that is so bright that it drives away the shadows of the various dark acts of your own time and place. Or you can collaborate on the outside but preserve an inner core of yourself that does not collaborate on the inside. [source]

85

Mein Kampf

Adolf Hitler, Abraham Foxman, et al

4.0

Alternate cover edition of this book.

Madman, tyrant, animal—history has given Adolf Hitler many names. In Mein Kampf (My Struggle), often called the Nazi bible, Hitler describes his life, frustrations, ideals, and dreams. Born to an impoverished couple in a small town in Austria, the young Adolf grew up with the fervent desire to become a painter. The death of his parents and outright rejection fr

86

The Origins of Nazi Violence

Enzo Traverso, Janet Lloyd

4.0

In the half-century since the appearance of Hannah Arendt’s seminal work The Origins of Totalitarianism, innumerable historians have detailed the history of the Nazi years. Now, in a brilliant synthesis of this work, Enzo Traverso situates the extermination camps as the final, terrible moment in European modernity’s industrialization of killing and dehumanization of death. Traverso upends the conv

Recommended by Ruth Ben-Ghiat.

Ruth Ben-Ghiat

All of Traverso’s work is fabulous, but given how concerned we should be now about how authoritarian movements come to power, this is an invaluable introduction. It’s the right book for right now. [source]

Cover unavailable

87

The Manson File: Myth and Reality of an Outlaw Shaman

Isaac Kennedy

4.0

Summing up 25 years of Nikolas Schreck's research into the Charles Manson phenomenon, this Book of Revelations illuminates unknown dimensions of Manson as philosopher, musician, Gnostic mystic, Mafia fall guy, revolutionary, and friend, lover and drug dealer to 1960s Hollywood's best-known rock stars and movie idols.

The first comprehensive study of Manson's life, times, crimes, and thought, this i

88

For My Legionaries (the Iron Guard)

Corneliu Zelea Codreanu

4.0

This is an autobiographical book in which Corneliu Zelea Codreanu expressed his political and spiritual ideaology as well as explained the struggles and persecution of his Legionary movement in Romania.

89

Against the Fascist Creep

Alexander Reid Ross

4.0

What are the origins of fascism’s current rise in the US and around the world?
What are its links to Donald Trump, Steve Bannon, Jeff Sessions, Kris Kobach, Ken Blackwell, and others in the new administration?
How has Vladimir Putin used the global far right to increase his power and influence?
Where did hate-speech celebrities like Richard Spencer and Milo Yiannopolous come from?
What role has Silico

90

Dreamer of the Day: Francis Parker Yockey and the Postwar Fascist International

Kevin Coogan

4.0

Francis Parker Yockey, lawyer & former war-crimes prosecutor, was one of the most enigmatic figures inside the far right in both Europe & America. His story is at the heart of the postwar Fascist International, a shadow Reich composed of conspirators, spies & occultists. This study is a treasure chamber for all interested in the ideological heirs of fascism & Nazism, of National bolshevism, Odinis

91

The Gift (Witch & Wizard, #2)

James Patterson and Ned Rust

4.0

When Whit & Wisty were imprisoned by the wicked forces of the totalitarian regime known as the New Order, they were barely able to escape with their lives. Now part of a hidden community of teens like themselves, Whit and Wisty have established themselves as leaders of the Resistance, willing to sacrifice anything to save kids kidnapped and brutally imprisoned by the New Order.

But the One has othe

92

No Platform: A History of Anti-Fascism, Universities and the Limits of Free Speech

Evan Smith

4.0

This book is the first to outline the history of the tactic of 'no platforming' at British universities since the 1970s, looking at more than four decades of student protest against racist and fascist figures on campus.

The tactic of 'no platforming' has been used at British universities and colleges since the National Union of Students adopted the policy in the mid-1970s. The author traces the ori

93

The Man in the High Castle

Philip K. Dick

4.0

Alternate Cover Edition can be found here and here.

It's America in 1962. Slavery is legal once again. The few Jews who still survive hide under assumed names. In San Francisco, the I Ching is as common as the Yellow Pages. All because some twenty years earlier the United States lost a war—and is now occupied by Nazi Germany and Japan.

This harrowing, Hugo Award-winning novel is the work that estab

Recommended by Antonio Eram and Joanna Kavenna.

Antonio Eram

This book was recommended by Antonio when asked for titles he would recommend to young people interested in his career path. [source]

Joanna Kavenna

You think you’ve acquired one truth: but that truth is really that there are infinite truths and infinite worlds, and nobody knows what the hell is going on, basically. [source]

94

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Muriel Spark, Alan Taylor

4.0

Edinburgh, 1930, and the world is on the brink of change. Leading the charge is the glamorous, free-spirited Miss Jean Brodie, schoolteacher at the Marcia Blaine Academy, whose guiding principle is 'Give me a girl at an impressionable age and she'll be mine for life. I am dedicated to you in my prime.' While Miss Brodie manipulates and charms 'her girls' - known as the Brodie Set - with notions of

Recommended by Alan Taylor.

Alan Taylor

It’s a fascinating book, beautifully written and, as a slim novel, you can go back to it every year and always find something new in it. [source]

95

Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth

Gitta Sereny

4.0

Albert Speer was not only Hitler's architect and armaments minister, but the Fuhrer's closest friend--his "unhappy love." Speer was one of the few defendants at the Nuremberg Trials to take responsibility for Nazi war crimes, even as he denied knowledge of the Holocaust. Now this enigma of a man is unveiled in a monumental biography by a writer who came to know Speer intimately in his final years.

96

The Great Successor: The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un

Anna Fifield

4.0

The behind-the-scenes story of the rise and reign of the world's strangest and most elusive tyrant, Kim Jong Un, by the journalist with the best connections and insights into the bizarrely dangerous world of North Korea.

Since his birth in 1984, Kim Jong Un has been swaddled in myth and propaganda, from the plainly silly--he could supposedly drive a car at the age of three--to the grimly bloody sto

Recommended by Demetri Sevastopulo, Marcel Dirsus, and Patrick Chovanec.

Demetri Sevastopulo

Anna has long written great stuff on North Korea. Check out her book on Kim Jong Un https://t.co/geJMplr29j [source]

Marcel Dirsus

Truly fascinating book, can only recommend it https://t.co/y6kXaVR32K [source]

Patrick Chovanec

I'm part of the way through @annafifield's book and it's fascinating. Lots of pieces that I've heard bits of, but never put together to form the full mosaic. I highly recommend it. https://t.co/ax2CQEeu1u [source]

Cover unavailable

97

The Open Society and its Enemies

Karl R. Popper, Alan Ryan, E. H. Gombrich

4.0

One of the most important books of the twentieth century, Karl Popper's The Open Society and Its Enemies is an uncompromising defense of liberal democracy and a powerful attack on the intellectual origins of totalitarianism. Popper was born in 1902 to a Viennese family of Jewish origin. He taught in Austria until 1937, when he emigrated to New Zealand in anticipation of the Nazi annexation of Aust

Recommended by Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Kurt Barling.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

One of the biggest lessons for me from this book is that so many bad ideas that lead to authoritarian consequences begin with good intentions. [source]

Kurt Barling

This book helped me to think in a different way, gave me a strategy of looking for an alternative narrative in society. [source]

98

Giovanni Gentile: Philosopher of Fascism

A. James Gregor

4.0

The recent rise in Europe of extreme right-wing political parties along with outbreaks of violent nationalist fervor in the former communist bloc has occasioned much speculation on a possible resurgence of fascism. At the polemical level, fascism has become a generic term applied to virtually any form of real or potential violence, while among Marxist and left-wing scholars discredited interpretat

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99

Sostiene Pereira

Antonio Tabucchi, Carlos Gumpert Melgosa, Xavier González Rovira

4.0

Lisboa, 1938. En una Europa recorrida por el fantasma de los totalitarismos, Pereira, un periodista dedicado durante toda su vida a la sección de sucesos, recibe el encargo de dirigir la página cultural de un mediocre periódico. Pereira tiene un sentido un tanto fúnebre de la cultura y prefiere la literatura del pasado. Necesitado de un colaborador, contacta con el joven Monteiro Rossi. Y la inten

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100

The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe

David I. Kertzer

4.0

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER

From National Book Award finalist David I. Kertzer comes the gripping story of Pope Pius XI’s secret relations with Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. This groundbreaking work, based on seven years of research in the Vatican and Fascist archives, including reports from Mussolini’s spies inside the highest levels of the Church, will forever change our understanding of the Vati