ABSTRACT
The term ‘fascism’ was coined in 1919 at the time of the founding of the Italian Fascist movement. The problem of where to place fascism on the left-right spectrum can be seen more clearly by considering briefly some of the major commentators who have taken fascist ideology seriously. In terms of ideas, fascism emerged from an ideological crisis of the left and right during the period culminating in the First World War. In order to help unravel fascist ideology, it is useful to set out the themes which tended to recur throughout classic fascist thought. The geopolitical method was particularly attractive to fascism because it involved a synthesis of history, economics, politics and the physical sciences. The fashion for the New Right seems to be waning against a background of an ailing Western economy, and the sense of a loss of community and national identity particularly in Europe.
