History As It Happens American Fascism, American Hitlers
Subscribe for 24/7 access to the entire catalog of 500+ episodes (or listen free to only the 40 most recent episodes).
The fascism debate is intensifying as the Trump administration lurches deeper into authoritarianism. Analogies abound, trying to connect or liken what's happening today to the death of democracy in interwar Europe — or to dark chapters in America's past. Is there an American fascism? Is it possible to look for it without invoking history's most infamous fascist, Adolf Hitler? Historian Gavriel Rosenfeld is our guest.
Gavriel Rosenfeld is a historian at Fairfield University and the president of the Center for Jewish History. He's the author or editor of eight books, including The Fourth Reich: The Specter of Nazism from World War II to the Present and Fascism in America: Past and Present.
Additional reading:
An American Führer? Nazi Analogies and the Attempt to Explain Donald Trump by Gavriel Rosenfeld (Cambridge University Press — article)
The Counterfactual History Review — Blog by Gavriel Rosenfeld