Roger Griffin, Werner Loh and Andreas Umland eds., Fascism Past and Present, West and East: An International Debate on Concepts and Cases in the Comparative Study of the Extreme Right (Stuttgart: ibidem-Verlag, 2006), 520 pp., $24.90.
The recent "Marches of the Dissatisfied" in Russia have once again called attention to the extremist forces which form part of the "Alternative Russia" movement, among them Eduard Limonov's National Bolshevik Party. This led me to examine a volume sent to the magazine last year-a symposium bearing on its cover the "Commie-Nazi" blended flag of the National Bolsheviks (the Nazi colors but with a hammer and sickle in place of the swastika) entitled Fascism Past and Present, West and East. Edited by three leading scholars on fascist and extremist movements-Roger Griffin, Werner Loh and Andreas Umland-it opens with the observation made by Walter Lacquer that the "prospects of the extreme Right in the former Soviet Union and Soviet bloc seem better than in most other parts of the world" and the extent to which extremist movements have become "respectable" again in various parts of Europe.
Let me start out by saying this is not a work that "chases the headlines" and it is most certainly not a comprehensive breakdown of current extremist movements and politicians in the former Soviet Union punctuated by amusing and illustrative anecdotes. It is an academic book, with a great deal of discussion of theory, written with all of the jargon beloved by social scientists (forcing someone like me, who considers himself to be an educated person, to consult the dictionary from time to time). And horror of horrors for an American audience-it contains chapters and contributions that are not in English. This book is not going to be read by DC policymakers and pundits who have no time to read and want quick, systemized information in an easy-to-digest format.
