As featured on NPR’s “On Point”“The twelve lessons in On Fascism draws from American history and brilliantly complement those of Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny.” —Laurence Tribe An expert on American authoritarianism offers a searing rebuke of the exceptional narrative that dominates our understanding of US history. In 12 lessons, Matthew C. MacWilliams’ On Fascism exposes the divisive rhetoric, … MacWilliams’ On Fascism exposes the divisive rhetoric, strongman tactics, violent othering, and authoritarian attitudes that course through American history and compete with our egalitarian, democratic aspirations. Trumpism isn’t new, but rooted in our refusal to come to terms with this historical reality.
The United States of Lyncherdom, as Mark Twain labeled America. Lincoln versus Douglas. The Chinese Exclusion Act. The Trail of Tears. The internment of Japanese-Americans. The Palmer Raids. McCarthyism. The Surveillance State. At turning points throughout history, as we aspired toward great things, we also witnessed the authoritarian impulse drive policy and win public support. Only by confronting and reconciling this past, can America move forward into a future rooted in the motto of our Republic since 1782: e pluribus unum (out of many, one).
But this book isn’t simply an indictment. It is also a celebration of our spirit, perseverance, and commitment to the values at the heart of the American project. Along the way, we learn about many American heroes – like Ida B. Wells, who dedicated her life to documenting the horrors of lynching throughout the nation, or the young Jewish-American who took a beating for protesting a Nazi rally in New York City in 1939. Men and women who embodied the soaring, revolutionary proclamations set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble to the Constitution.
On Fascism is both an honest reckoning and a call for reconciliation. Denial and division will not save the Republic, but coming to terms with our history might.
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Every American political campaign, and every administration has produced its fair share of ‘tell-all’ books, but never before a book quite like ON FASCISM. Matthew C. MacWilliam points to and debunks American exceptionalism by citing authoritarianism as a practice known back to Plymouth Plantation and slave labor landing in Savannah Harbor right up to the brutal killing of George Floyd.
Every book I read, I do so, quite literally, from cover to cover… dedications, author’s notes… everything but the index. When you read ON FASCISM, start at the very beginning and you will understand that this book is not only contemporary but as up-to-the-minute as is possible.
The subtitle of this book, “12 Lessons from American History,” is a clear indication of its intent. MacWilliams’ goal here is to remove the rose-colored glasses and educate Americans in the actual history of their nation. The American Myth is just that… myth. That myth is the result of whitewashing (pun intended) our history to foster complacency based on lies and obfuscation. Each of these history lessons uses examples from the past that can be updated to the 21st century by simply removing names and dates. Did I learn anything? I most certainly did… and, in general, I think of myself as educated and informed. The rhetoric of the authoritarian is not limited to those on the right but crops up in some unexpected places.
The American media has used the word ‘unprecedented’ to describe the acts and actions of the current administration ad nauseum. By reviewing American history as codified since its inception, I have learned that this is just not so. Our current situation sees the media hanging on to every ‘alternate fact’ and outright lie and reporting them to the American people. This has happened before, and will undoubtedly happen again.
This is a book that every American should read. History, as it has been taught in school, tends to forget that Native Americans owned the land that was taken from them by European settlers. It doesn’t tell us that the very foundation of our nation was for the benefit of white men. It doesn’t tell us that long before there were 13 colonies, slave ships were bringing kidnapped Africans to our shores. These are inconvenient truths when you want to foment otherness for the benefit of a single elite.
Before the campaign that started in 2015 and its result in 2016, I was an avid reader of fiction. Over the years, there was the odd non-fiction book that caught my eye, but such books did not revolve around politics. In the past four plus years, I have learned much about the history of the United States of which I was unaware. I read ON FASCISM in less than a day. It is a fairly quick read that made me examine not only the American story, but my understanding of it. At the end of the day, we can choose to support and defend our republic or stand idle and let it become a fascist state. There are many things I could quote; however, the one statement that stood out in this Presidential election year: “When institutions like the Department of Justice ignore the Constitution and flaunt the rule of law, changing leadership at the top is not a sufficient remedy. The institution itself must be changed to protect democracy.” To truly fix what is wrong today, we must start with our local officials and see what they are doing to push us toward “a more perfect union.”
Better Title: On Fascism I Disagree With. In this text, MacWilliams does something I’ve literally never seen before, at least not this blatantly. He takes the concept of “prooftexting” from Christian nonfiction/ preaching, wherein the speaker (or writer) selectively quotes particular passages in “proof” of whatever point they are making, and uses the same technique using American History itself as his “inerrant” source. And as with all prooftexters, MacWilliams does indeed make a solid point here or there, but specifically in relation to the other St Martin’s Press title whose review spurred this one – Divided We Fall by David French – this book is but a pale comparison at best. To the level that if one can *only* read one of the two, go with French’s text over this one. Yes, it is longer, and yes, it still comes from a particular ideological background. But it is also *far* more balanced, nuanced, and I daresay insightful. Here, MacWilliams blatantly ignores virtually all authoritarianism from the left, including from current Presidential candidate Joseph R. Biden while consistently railing against that of the current President of the United States, Donald J Trump. He further has a very narrow definition of “democratic” and claims that anyone who doesn’t meet that definition for any reason whatsoever is “authoritarian”, seemingly completely unaware that Anarchists exist and fight “democracy” as nothing more than the iron fist of authoritarianism in the velvet glove of being benevolent to the chosen few.
Finally, in an irony that cannot be ignored by myself in particular – as I run a Facebook page called “He Didn’t F*cking Say That” – MacWilliams begins and ends the text referencing Benjamin Franklin’s “a republic, if you can keep it” line… which didn’t appear in the American lexicon until 1906 according to the Yale Book of Quotations, over a century after Franklin’s death. And yet despite this (or seemingly ignorant of the quote being apocryphal), MacWilliams seems to be unaware of his hypocrisy as he decries McCarthy’s butchering of some of Lincoln’s lines during his own quest for power.
On the whole, this was an interesting and at least quick read. But if one is looking for a complete – or even moderately adequate – takedown of fascism and an exploration of its history in America, sadly this is not such a text. Recommended if only for the few salient points it does make and its brevity.