Bradshaw, Wayne (2024) Book Review of "Repeat: A Warning from History" by Dennis Glover. Collingwood, Australia, Black Inc., 2024. ISBN 9781743823781. Australian Policy and History, 24 October 2024.

PDF (Published Version) - Published Version Restricted to Repository staff only

Abstract

[Extract] Dennis Glover’s new book, Repeat: A Warning from History, is the latest work to take its place in the committed tradition of polemical writing against the resurgence of a worldview that Umberto Eco called ‘Ur-Fascism’ in his 1997 essay of the same name. In this work, Eco described ‘a series of cultural habits, a nebula of obscure instincts and unfathomable drives’ within democracies which lead them towards tyranny (7). Eco went on to list fourteen Ur-Fascist habits of mind, including ‘the cult of tradition’ (16), ‘the cult of action for action’s sake’ (19), and an ‘obsession with conspiracies’ (21). Presciently, he warned of an ‘Internet populism, in which the emotional response of a selected group of citizens can be presented and accepted as the ‘voice of the people,’’ making it necessary for Ur-Fascism ‘to oppose ‘rotten’ parliamentary governments’ (25). A desire to drain the political swamp, Eco suggested, is an inevitable obsession for any would-be Mussolini. Eco concluded his essay by proposing that ‘Ur-Fascism can still return in the most innocent of guises,’ and that ‘[o]ur duty is to unmask it and to point the finger at each of its new forms—every day, in every part of the world’ (28). Reading ‘Ur-Fascism’ today is an uncomfortable exercise.

Item ID:	83871
Item Type:	Article (Book Review)
Copyright Information:	Copyright © 2024 Deakin University.
Date Deposited:	24 Oct 2024 00:53
FoR Codes:	43 HISTORY, HERITAGE AND ARCHAEOLOGY > 4303 Historical studies > 430310 Global and world history @ 50% 47 LANGUAGE, COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE > 4705 Literary studies > 470507 Comparative and transnational literature @ 50%
SEO Codes:	13 CULTURE AND SOCIETY > 1307 Understanding past societies > 130799 Understanding past societies not elsewhere classified @ 50% 13 CULTURE AND SOCIETY > 1302 Communication > 130203 Literature @ 50%
Downloads:	Total: 2 Last 12 Months: 2
	More Statistics