MixedThe TimesFascism: A Warning is a wise book but not an innovative one. Reading it is unlikely to change your mind or even provide you with new arguments for your existing beliefs. Such satisfaction as it brings comes from spending time in the company of a sage and admirable person who is not very keen on fascism. I share her concern about authoritarianism and didn’t disagree with anything she said. I also think there are so many stupid ideas out there, that I’m grateful to read a book filled with ones that aren’t stupid, even if I felt I already knew them. But still. When I finished reading, a friend asked me \'So what is fascism?\' and I found I couldn’t give her an answer. At least not one based on the book I’d just finished. This seems quite a flaw ... There is a moment in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in which Harrison Ford attacks a number of German soldiers before exclaiming: \'Nazis. I hate these guys.\' Albright has, essentially, turned this insight into an entire book. It is a sign of how worrying the times are that this doesn’t seem an altogether ridiculous endeavour.
