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    Fascism: A Warning
    Fascism: A Warning
    Fascism: A Warning
    Audiobook9 hours

    Fascism: A Warning

    Written by Madeleine Albright

    Narrated by Madeleine Albright

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    From one of the most admired international leaders, comes a timely, considered, and personal look at the history and current resurgence of fascism today and the virulent threat it poses to international freedom, prosperity, and peace.

    At the end of the 1980s, when the Cold War ended, many, including former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, believed that democracy had triumphed politically once and for all. Yet nearly thirty years later, the direction of history no longer seems certain. A repressive and destructive force has begun to re-emerge on the global stage—sweeping across Europe, parts of Asia, and the United States—that to Albright, looks very much like fascism.

    Based on her personal experience growing up in Hungary under Hitler and the Communist regime that followed World War II, as well as knowledge gleaned from her distinguished diplomatic career and insights from colleagues around the globe, Albright paints a clear picture of how fascism flourishes and explains why it is once again taking hold worldwide, identifying the factors contributing to its rise. Most importantly, she makes clear what could happen if we fail to act against rising fascist forces today and in the near future, including the potential for economic catastrophe, a lasting spike in terrorist activity, increased sectarian violence, a rash of large-scale humanitarian emergencies, massive human rights violations, a breakdown in multilateral cooperation, and nearly irreparable self-inflicted damage to America’s reputation and capacity to lead.

    Albright also offers clear solutions, including adjusting to the ubiquity of social media and the changing nature of the workplace, and understanding ordinary citizens’ universal desire for sources of constancy and morality in their lives. She contends that we must stimulate economic growth and narrow the gap between the rich and poor, urban and rural, women and men, and skilled and unskilled; work across borders to respond to transnational challenges; and ultimately recognize that democracy’s unique virtue is its ability—through reason and open debate—to find remedies for its own shortcomings.

    Editor's Note

    Stirring defense of democracy…

    Few understand the threat of fascism quite like Madeleine Albright. She offers a stirring defense of democracy and key steps nations must take if they hope to prevent the modern rise of authoritarian regimes.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateApr 10, 2018
    ISBN9780062802248
    Fascism: A Warning
    Author

    Madeleine Albright

    Madeleine Albright served as America’s sixty-fourth secretary of state from 1997 to 2001. Her distinguished career also included positions at the White House, on Capitol Hill, and as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. She was a resident of Washington D.C., and Virginia.

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    Reviews for Fascism

    4.5/5

    407 ratings42 reviews

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    • 4/5
      She does a great job with historical reference. However, she clearly interprets her leaning politically and fails to tie both political parties in the USA to practices of fascism while providing the definition for it. I feel this book would fully beneficial to the purpose of democracy had she done that. But, as it stands, it tears down one side and fails to call out the other, presently and historically.

      3 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      It's not about the right wing as the title might suggest. This book is about emerging disturbances and proliferation of easy-to-believe techniques used to secure majority vote for dictatorship be it socialist or conservative. Along detailed critical review of becoming to powers such leaders as Mussolini, Hitler, Erdogan, Maduro, Orban and Putin, Trump is devoted only a brief passage and Ms. Albright is not tempted here to smear dirt on republicans or Trump in particular. I am sure Trump voters will like this book too for its sober and impartial view on totalitarism.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 1/5
      Communism is more of a threat than “fascism” she uses some mental gymnastics. Couldn’t finish it. It’s 100% propaganda

      1 person found this helpful

    • 2/5
      Ahh the irony…here we have a true fascist, who decided to write a book, warning about “fascism”. She was delusional. The fascist is the author, here, but sadly, money and power, allowed her, and her sick colleagues, to buy their way out of the truth, replaced by a very polished, completely dishonest pile of nonsense. They (Clinton Administration) actually hired a PR firm to spread propaganda to suit their chosen narrative, and the press fell for it; all of it, specifically the Balkan wars. Big shock. In 2023, if we don’t already know, that everything we have been told by the media, has been a carefully crafted set of lies, we don’t really deserve any better, as a society, than we get.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 1/5
      It takes one to know one. This book comes straight from the woman who said of the 500,000 Iraqi children starving to death from US sanctions that “the price was worth it” live on 60 Minutes.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 1/5
      Author doesn't have a clue what so ever! Trump 2024
    • 5/5
      A very well informed scholar and historian of 20th and 21 century history.
    • 2/5
      The back lacked focus on the topic of fascism, still a decent book.
    • 5/5
      A crash course on the 20th century history. Impressive stories.
    • 4/5
      It was a nice little history lesson and overview of fascism. I liked the pace.
    • 5/5
      Valuable historical accounts written by a participant in the affairs of state. Eye opening
    • 5/5
      She is a genius with life experience!
      And so erudite!! Easy to listen to.
    • 5/5
      Wonderful book by Madeline Albright! I am going to listen to it again but this time, I will be using a notepad so that I don’t lose the information included in this book. There is so much more here than what I thought there would be I could not stop listening. The book was full of history lessons that we should know – but we do not! I claim that we are deficient in our knowledge of history generally and, in the case of this book, US history since the Civil War specifically. I was not aware of Albright’s broad knowledge of history that is at once Scholarly AND urgent! She used well-placed personal references and anecdotes sparingly.

      Please read this book.
    • 4/5
      Mrs Albright has a really great voice to listen to; clear and loud. And the book itself is really good to. It's more like a history lesson then an analysis of history, but really good.
    • 5/5
      Food for thought. should be required reading for all social study classes.
    • 5/5
      Extraordinarily well written and narrated. Madeline Albright is a National treasure. The book is captivating from the start and brings you along on a powerful journey through the relevant and Historical elements of Fascism. The book is a perfectly timed piece of literature that is a must read for anyone not only concerned with the current state of our Country, but the state of Political and cultural affairs Internationally. It is a great contribution to the betterment of our modern society.??
    • 1/5
      Garbage propaganda about Trump. This book was written to attack Trump, ironically calling Trump all of the things Biden is in fact doing.
    • 5/5
      Brilliant on many levels a great perspective and modern history
      From one of the greatest thinkers of the modern era.
    • 5/5
      I appreciated so much of reading this amazing books. Thank you very much for penning such a book.
    • 5/5
      Her facts and knowledge are like a real time playbook to the current events unfolding now. Spot on, I have referred this book several times!
    • 5/5
      A must read before November 3rd. Please read and encourage others to read before the Presidential Elections. We need a clear understanding what is ay stake
    • 5/5
      Such a timely warning to America from one of the nation’s great thinkers. While looking at the past and present, Albright is so clear about how fascism can take root. Once it’s here, it can take thousands or even millions of lives to uproot it. We’re so lucky she had the strength to write this book in her final years. Let’s hope Madeleine Albright can rest in peace.
    • 5/5
      Intellectually provocative and stunningly historical. The assault on global democracy is very obvious as wave after wave of populist leaders are being rewarded with leadership posts to which their policies, body languages, and dogmas are all reminiscence of the era of Fascism.
    • 5/5
      A history of fascism highlighting how it often creeps in with men who’ve been legally elected. A warning that Albright had planned on writing regardless of who was president. A warning to help heat up people’s love of democracy. A warning that it could happen here. I’m not willing to bet it can’t happen here. Are you?
    • 5/5
      Never have I read a book that is more relevant to the US today. The clear similarities between mistakes made in the past and where our country may be heading now are indisputable. Madeleine Albright did a fantastic job on reviewing times in history and comparing them to the scenes playing out in our every day news.
    • 5/5
      An important and prescient book. It was written after the Russian annexation of Crimea but before Putin's 2022 invasion of the rest of the Ukraine; after Trump was elected president, but before Trump's defeat when he ran for a second term. I sheds light on these events and helps to make sense of what has happened after the book was written. I give it the highest possible recommendation.
    • 4/5
      Overall, this is a book worth reading. Madeline Albright brings in a refreshing personal angle to the book, with memories of her own childhood at the time of World War II. She is professionally qualified to write on fascism, having seen it up front, and having had the chance to meet many autocratic leaders during her career. In addition, she is - has been - a professor. Yet, she missed the chance to write a more insightful book. This does not mean to say that the book is devoid of insight. It is not. She could have gone deeper and did not. I am surprised she did not comment on the changes taking place in India. This is a critical omission
    • 5/5
      Are You Being Plucked?

      Who better to help former Secretary of State Madeline Albright make her point than the first fascist, Il Duce, Benito Mussolini. He advised, pluck the chicken feather by feather so as to keep the squawking discrete; in this way, disappearing freedoms go unnoticed until too late. Sounds similar to what we are experiencing in the form of lie constantly, toss out outrageous statements regularly, do all to divert attention and confuse matters.

      Using fascist leaders, dictators, and authoritarian rules from Mussolini’s and Hitler’s days, Albright describes and thereby alerts us to the pattern of how these people work. Wise people should pay attention.

      Early on, Albright offers a checklist for defining a Fascist, and it’s worth quoting it here, for if you go no further than this, at least you will have a handy way for judging many of today’s strong men. “To my mind, a Fascist is someone who identifies strongly with and claims to speak for a whole nation or group, is unconcerned with the rights of others, and is willing to use whatever means are necessary—including violence—to achieve his or her goals. In that conception, a Fascist will likely be a tyrant, but a tyrant need not be a Fascist.”

      Albright reinforces her point by taking readers through the circumstances allowing, the rise of, and the methods of control employed by a real rogues gallery of tough guys: Mussolini, Hitler, Franco (Spain), Sir Oswald Mosley (England), Stalin, Joe McCarthy, Milošević, Marcos and Duterte (Philippines), Chávez, Erdoğan, Orbán (Hungry), Putin, and the list, unfortunately, could be much longer. Learning about the motives and methods of these men, it won’t be lost on readers how Donald Trump seems to be drawing from these authoritarians’ playbooks. The message here is quite clear, forcefully laid out for all but the blind and addled to see: we like to believe that American democracy and our republican governmental checks and balances afford us protection against such strong men overwhelming our way of life, but we may be much to optimistic.

      Back in the dim days of the Great Depression, when fascism rose in Italy and Germany, American author Sinclair Lewis saw clearly that we too could succumb to the siren song of order and national chauvinism. It’s well worth taking a look at his novelistic toppling of our government, It Can’t Happen Here (1936), both about fascist revolution and American populism manifested by Huey Long.

      Again, with Albright’s book, we have yet another red flag volume that Americans should read, and that, alas, most, especially those who should, will not.
    • 5/5
      Albright's book was a pleasant surprise to me. I did not read or hear anything about her book prior to me picking it up at my local library. it is very well written and very informative. Obviously Mrs. Albright possesses a unique perspective on this topic, primarily in her role as Secretary of State. The topic of the book is very timely given the political circumstances around the world and sadly, within the United States.

      Mrs. Albright presents an overview of the governing styles of various dictators and national leaders including Hitler, Mussolini, Putin, Chavez, and Kim Jong-il. She had the opportunity to meet with Kim Jong il at the end of the Clinton presidency. Her observations, within the book, are very timely given the proposed summit scheduled for June 12, 2018.

      She also expressed her anxiety about the present and future state of democracy within the United States.

      I do not ordinarily read books written by political or government officials as they generally have an agenda and one does not get an unbiased view or analysis. But I was very pleased by this book and would recommend it to anyone interested in history, leadership and democracy.
    • 5/5
      Nice general overview of fascism