Jason Stanley's How Fascism Works: Examining the Politics of Us vs. Them

Art Severance: Explains perfectly what's happening in the GOP today!

United States on Oct 06, 2023

Leslie Mills: This book is perfect! It looks new as if it's never been read. Thank you for what will be a good read as well as a great deal and fast delivery time.

United States on Sep 11, 2023

Linda S.: Jason Stanley has written a significant well resourced book that all people should read if they are interested in how fascism rises. He pulls no punches but offers a pathway out of a hard decline.

Empathy! The game changer.

United States on May 29, 2023

CMontoya: I think some of the people in this review forum forget that Fascism is purely a Right sided Ideology. It is the opposite of the Left. So when I see reviews where people whine that this book is picking on only one side- Yes. Yes, it very much is. If you came here to see a balanced view of Fascism from both sides you are delusional that it even exists. Stop that. If you want a clearer idea of what Fascism is and how it is at play in our world today please read this.

United States on Apr 07, 2023

scharada dubey: Watching events unfold across India and the world in the past decade has brought many uncomfortable truths home to many of us. As we become inured to more propaganda than news, those of us trying to keep ourselves sane in a post-truth world often wonder how things around us have deteriorated so much, so fast. Jason Stanley's book is a good summation of the salient features that mark fascist discourse and its expression as an anti-people regime. As countries grapple with the effect that divisive rulers and policies have brought to them, the book is a good primer for those who want to resist.

India on Nov 28, 2022

A M BALASUBRAMANIAM: This book is a must-read if you vouch for a diverse and democratic society. In addition, this book is a good barometer for knowing whether the society you live in is headed towards fascism.

This book lists in detail, how the mythic past is evoked by Fascists ,to set up Us vs Them. The Chapter on Propaganda, as used by Fascists, is frightening. The author has vividly
described why Fascists are unfailingly Anti- Intellectual

The poisonous use of unreality/ fake news/ conspiracy theories is well documented. The use of hierarchy as a tool to further fascism is thought-provoking and an eye opener to those who fall prey to such tactics.

If the chapter on victimhood makes you rage in anger, you are in a fascist
society as a victim. If it makes you feel slimy and angry at the author, you are an agent of fascism perturbed by the fear of exposure. The chapter on Sexual Anxiety has been well illustrated with contemporary examples.

This book needs to be read multiple times. You need to read in detail about some of the incidents related in the book. You need to learn to be wary of leaders who have traits of a fascist. You need to educate common people, friends...

India on Sep 24, 2022

Henry Duckworth: Some might see hyperbole or perhaps hysteria in conjuring up the specter of fascism in the current political climate in the west, but this book helped me understand that contemplating democracy without considering fascism is like trying to define a line by a single point; both democracy and fascism lie along a continuum at one end of which the members of a society get to have a say and, at the other end of which, only one man at the top does. All actual democracies lie somewhere in between.

Those observing the political landscape can certainly benefit from an outline such as Stanley offers in this book, which elucidates the mechanisms through which a political system, while remaining nominally a democracy, may nonetheless at times be moved either away from or towards the end at which all the power ends up in the hands of one man. To his credit, Stanley hopes to equip his readers to better identify these movements for what they are.

For those anxious to preserve democracy, he identifies individual aspects that need careful safe-guarding lest they be eliminated one-by-one, like so many pickup-sticks until, imperceptibly, all of the sticks may be gone.

There are...

Canada on Jul 02, 2022

LenZen: This book contains some interesting history and identifies common patterns in the rise of fascism. The author describes an underlining mechanism fascists use to gain control of a nation. The primary means is the creation of a glorified and inaccurate past that the fascists believe the nation must strive to regain. This goal is supported by a notion of "us" who support the fascists versus a "them" who oppose the fascists seeking to corrupt and destroy the nation. In fascism the "us" and "them" are created along racial, ethnic or religious lines.

Stanley points out some interesting patterns such as fascist insistence on traditional families and viewing folks living in rural settings as good and pure while viewing those who live in cities as tending to be corrupt. Stanley argues that the reasons for these beliefs are fundamental. The traditional family has a strong leader, the father, and fascists want to mirror this for the nation with a strong leader at its head. Similarly favoring rural over urban dwellers is fundamental as rural dwellers are cast as having values closer to those in the nation's glorious past while city dwellers have new corrupt values.

All this is...

United States on Apr 18, 2022

Ranganathan K: This book needs a deep reading and more so if you are a political science student or follower. The basic ideas expressed in the book and the illustrations to support them from present day countries and leaders as well as the Nazi and various other historical experiences make the book very interesting. The problem of presenting current political scenarios is that you are bound to be biased one way or the other depending upon your inclinations. The divide and rule policy has been applied in India over and over again by not just the present rulers but by past rulers as well. It is a well tested and honed skill that all shades of political entities use. How effective or how deep the various tools of fascism are used to gain political power and financial benefits or to ultimately supress democracy and bring about a change in the way a nation is ruled cannot be fathomed now. Many of these fascist tendencies are short lived and are undone at the end of the ruling regime. Though the book, for major part deals with the republicans and the Trump era (which has seen a defeat presently), its application to the Indian scene would be interesting to watch as the situation in Indian politics...

India on May 04, 2021

Luca T.: I liked this book, but I have to say I didn't love it.
I thought it would be more deep in its analysis, but it is more an enunciation of different "rules" or thought processes of the uber-fascist and how that could be seen in some historical events in the past and in the present; which isn't bad per se. But I felt heavily how this is enclosed in the left-right context, which we all know that nowadays isn't as it used to be: the fascist communication may be implemented more in the right sphere, but still the kind of hatred to the "other" that it promotes is evident in both sides, especially in the digital era, where the social networks work in a way that makes us see only what we would like to see, without any confrontation with something outside of "our side". I think that it failed to make the reader feel the risk to see the rise of fascism in the different mediums and contexts (outside of politics) that we have, but I may be wrong: I'm not a Professor at Yale. It's still a good read

Italy on Feb 09, 2021