{{short description|2008 book by Jonah Goldberg}} {{use mdy dates|date=December 2014}} {{Infobox book |name = Liberal Fascism |image = Liberal Fascism (cover).jpg |author = Jonah Goldberg |country = United States |subject = Politics |publisher = Doubleday |release_date = January 8, 2008 |media_type = Print (hardcover) |pages = 496 |isbn = 0-385-51184-1 |dewey = 320.53/3 22 |congress = JC481 .G55 2007 |oclc = 123136367 }}{{About|the book by Jonah Goldberg|a comparison of liberalism and fascism|Fascism and ideology#Liberalism}} '''''Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning''''' is a book by Jonah Goldberg, who was then a syndicated columnist and the editor-at-large of ''National Review Online'' (now at ''The Dispatch''). In contrast to the mainstream view among historians and political scientists that fascism is a far-right ideology, Goldberg argues in the book that fascist movements were and are left-wing.<ref name="Granieri 2020">{{cite news |last=Granieri |first=Ronald J. |date=5 February 2020 |title=The right needs to stop falsely claiming that the Nazis were socialists |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/02/05/right-needs-stop-falsely-claiming-that-nazis-were-socialists/ |access-date=7 August 2021 |issn=0190-8286}}</ref> Published in January 2008, it reached number one on ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list of hardcover non-fiction in its seventh week on the list.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/books/bestseller/0309besthardnonfiction.html|title=Hardcover Nonfiction|date=March 9, 2008|work=The New York Times|access-date=March 5, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131113070051/http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/books/bestseller/0309besthardnonfiction.html|archive-date=November 13, 2013|url-status=live}}</ref>
== Origin of title == Goldberg has said in interviews that the title ''Liberal Fascism'' was taken from a 1932 speech by science fiction pioneer H. G. Wells at Oxford.<ref name="G&H Podcast">{{cite podcast|url=http://politicscentral.com/2007/12/27/the_glenn_and_helen_show_jonah.php|title=The Glenn and Helen Show: Jonah Goldberg on Hillary, Huckabee, and Liberal Fascism|website=Politics Central|host=Glenn Reynolds & Helen Smith|date=December 27, 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071228180749/http://politicscentral.com/2007/12/27/the_glenn_and_helen_show_jonah.php|archive-date=December 28, 2007|df=mdy-all}}.</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Goldberg |first1=Jonah |title=What 'The Daily Show' Cut Out |url=http://www.townhall.com/columnists/JonahGoldberg/2008/01/23/what_the_daily_show_cut_out |website=townhall.com |language=en |date=23 January 2008}}</ref> Before being published, alternative subtitles included ''The Totalitarian Temptation from Mussolini to Hillary Clinton'' and ''The Totalitarian Temptation from Hegel to Whole Foods''.<ref>Noah, Timothy, [http://www.slate.com/id/2169323/ Has Jonah Goldberg Gone Soft on Hillary?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100309041348/http://www.slate.com/id/2169323/ |date=March 9, 2010 }} in ''Slate'', June 27, 2007</ref>
== Reception == In January 2010, the History News Network published essays by David Neiwert, Robert Paxton, Roger Griffin, Matthew Feldman, Chip Berlet and Michael Ledeen criticizing ''Liberal Fascism''. These reviews denounced the book as being "poor scholarship",<ref>{{cite web |last=Feldman |first=Matthew |title=Poor Scholarship, Wrong Conclusions |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130719003021/http://www.hnn.us/articles/122247.html|archive-date=2013-07-19|url=http://www.hnn.us/articles/122247.html |access-date=May 31, 2011 |work=HNN Special: A Symposium on Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism |date=February 2, 2010 |publisher=George Mason University (HNN)}}</ref> "propaganda",<ref>{{cite web |last=Griffin |first=Roger |title=An Academic Book – Not! |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130419034354/http://www.hnn.us/articles/122473.html|archive-date=2013-04-19|url=http://www.hnn.us/articles/122473.html |access-date=May 31, 2011 |work=HNN Special: A Symposium on Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism |date=February 3, 2010 |publisher=George Mason University (HNN)}}</ref> and not scholarly.<ref>{{cite web |last=Paxton |first=Robert |title=The Scholarly Flaws of "Liberal Fascism" |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130506171901/http://www.hnn.us/articles/122231.html|archive-date=2013-05-06|url=http://www.hnn.us/articles/122231.html |access-date=May 31, 2011 |work=HNN Special: A Symposium on Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism |date=February 2, 2010 |publisher=George Mason University (HNN)}}</ref> History News Network also published a response by Goldberg, to which several authors then responded.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |url=http://www.hnn.us/articles/122469.html |title=Introduction |access-date=January 25, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100128034427/http://www.hnn.us/articles/122469.html |archive-date=January 28, 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
In a January 2022 retrospective published in the conservative magazine ''The Dispatch'', Goldberg stated that: "While I would certainly write the book differently today, I still stand by much of it, proudly so in many regards. For instance, I take great satisfaction that my hammer-and-tongs attack on Woodrow Wilson's nativism, racism, and authoritarianism, much ridiculed at the time is now much closer to conventional wisdom on the left and right."
However, Goldberg also stated that: "there's one important claim that has been rendered utterly wrong. I argued that, contrary to generations of left-wing fearmongering and slander about the right's fascist tendencies, the modern American right was simply immune to the fascist temptation chiefly because it was too dogmatically committed to the Founders, to constitutionalism, and to classical liberalism generally. Almost 13 years to the day after publication, Donald Trump proved me wrong."<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-01-05 |title=What I Got Wrong About Fascism |url=https://thedispatch.com/newsletter/gfile/what-i-got-wrong-about-fascism/ |access-date=2023-06-20 |website=The Dispatch |language=en-US}}</ref>
== See also == * Fascism in North America * Definitions of Fascism * ''Death of a Nation'' (2018 film)
== References == {{Reflist|colwidth=25em}}
== External links == * [https://web.archive.org/web/20100109104951/http://liberalfascism.nationalreview.com/ Book discussion blog on ''National Review Online''] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20080226104709/http://www.bookbites.org/BBBookLiberalFascism.html BookBites – Quotes from the book] * [http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=147884&title=jonah-goldberg 'The Daily Show' Interview with Jonah Goldberg] * Dr. Milt Rosenberg [https://web.archive.org/web/20080228002105/http://caster.wgnradio.com/podcasts/x720full-012-080128.mp3 interviews Jonah Goldberg on ''WGN Radio – Extension 720''] * Hugh Hewitt's [http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/talkradio/transcripts/Transcript.aspx?ContentGuid=8076ffd8-c377-49fd-ac07-31ad2ba6b942 Interview with Jonah Goldberg] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110520090545/http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/talkradio/transcripts/Transcript.aspx?ContentGuid=8076ffd8-c377-49fd-ac07-31ad2ba6b942 |date=May 20, 2011 }} * Investor's Business Daily's [https://web.archive.org/web/20090919100709/http://www.ibdeditorials.com/podcasts.aspx#goldberg interview] with [https://web.archive.org/web/20090716032105/http://www.ibdeditorials.com/images/IBD_022808_Goldberg.mp3 Jonah Goldberg] * {{cite web|title=Book Discussion on ''Liberal Fascism''|url=http://www.c-span.org/video/?203535-1/book-discussion-liberal-fascism|publisher=C-SPAN|access-date=26 April 2015|date=9 January 2008}} * Robert Wright's [http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/13625?in=50:49&out=64:50 interview with Jonah Goldberg] on Bloggingheads.tv.
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Category:2008 non-fiction books Category:American political books Category:Books about fascism Category:Books about politics of the United States Category:Books critical of modern liberalism in the United States Category:Doubleday (publisher) books