The book is pretty much nonsense. It's true that at the time, some conservatives accused FDR of "trying to introduce Hitlerism to America" (Godwin's Law before WWII even started!), but FDR clearly opposed fascism (to the point of deliberately antagonizing the Axis powers before the war and allying with the Soviet Union to fight the Axis powers).
Currently taking a break from the site. See my user page for more information.I'm pretty sure modern liberalism owes more to the Enlightenment and Progressive movements than the fascists. Especially since it predates fascism.
What's the frequency Kenneth?|In case of war.You know who the real founder of Fascism was? Mussolini.
What's the frequency Kenneth?|In case of war.Mussolini did read Plato, actually. He liked The Republic.
What's the frequency Kenneth?|In case of war.Calling Plato the founder of fascism is the dumbest thing Karl Popper ever said. The Republic is the Form of a state. By the principles of idealism Plato lays out in the book, it cannot exist on earth, any more than the ideal knife.
If Mussolini or anyone else in the 20th century was inspired by the Republic, they weren't Platonists. They were under the spell of what Eric Voegelin
called "political religion", so popular in that century.
"The problem of an eidos [Form] in history, hence, arises only when a Christian transcendental fulfillment becomes immanentized. Such an immanentist hypostasis of the eschaton, however, is a theoretical fallacy."
In other words, it's impossible to change the world so it becomes Heaven.
edited 8th Feb '11 10:35:07 PM by Rottweiler
“Love is the eternal law whereby the universe was created and is ruled.” — St. BernardThe History News Network has a series of essays
by respected historians addressing Goldberg's book, including a response from Goldberg.
@Rott: If Plato didn't think his ideal state could actually be implemented, then why did he assert in a later work that an actual state of the sort he described had once existed in the same place as Athens and had fought wars against Atlantis?
Currently taking a break from the site. See my user page for more information.From Wikipedia:
I suppose Plato might have intended Critias as an Unreliable Narrator.
Currently taking a break from the site. See my user page for more information.@Jewelleddragon: Interesting discussion. Neiwart's attacks on Goldberg and Goldberg's attacks on Neiwart are both completely accurate.
Currently taking a break from the site. See my user page for more information.

The thesis of this book is that modern liberalism has orgins in Fascism. I would to discuss this book and see what the history buffs of this site think. No, I don't agree with the author, Jonah Goldberg.