How Fascism Works cover art

How Fascism Works

The Politics of Us and Them

 Preview
Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

How Fascism Works

By: Jason Stanley
Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews
Try Standard free

Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $19.99

Buy Now for $19.99

About this listen

 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “No single book is as relevant to the present moment.”—Claudia Rankine, author of Citizen

“With unsettling insight and disturbing clarity, How Fascism Works is an essential guidebook to our current national dilemma of democracy vs. authoritarianism.”—Jelani Cobb, New Yorker staff writer

A Yale philosopher identifies the ten pillars of fascist politics, and charts their horrifying rise and deep history.

As a scholar of philosophy and propaganda and the child of refugees of WWII Europe, Jason Stanley has long understood that democratic societies, including the United States, can be vulnerable to fascism. In How Fascism Works, he identifies ten pillars of fascist politics—an appeal to the mythic past, propaganda, anti-intellectualism, unreality, hierarchy, victimhood, law and order, sexual anxiety, favoring “the heartland,” and a dismantling of public goods and unions—that amount to an urgent diagnosis of the tactics right-wing politicians use to break down democracies and a critical lens on the current moment.

Stanley knits together reflections on history, philosophy, sociology, and critical race theory with stories from contemporary Hungary, Poland, India, Myanmar, and the United States, among other nations, making clear the immense dangers of language and beliefs that separate people into an “us” and a “them.” By uncovering disturbing patterns that are as prevalent today as ever, Stanley reveals that the stuff of politics—rhetoric and myth—can become policy and reality all too quickly. Only by recognizing them, he argues, can we begin to resist their most harmful effects and return to democratic ideals. 20th Century Modern Political Science Politics & Government Social Sciences Social justice Crime Socialism Interwar Period Refugee Liberalism War Imperialism Capitalism Latin America American Politics
All stars
Most relevant
Listening to this in 2025… it hits very close to home. Knowing it was written in 2018 and so many of the things discussed have definitely come to pass in those intervening seven years, it can the subject matter quite daunting but it is presented in a clear and level headed manner.

Now is definitely the time to listen to this book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
loved it. excellent. must read. hugely relevant. well written. intelligent and plain English. thanks heaps

perfect

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Very basic representation of Facism providing examples for the authors arguments however I believe that the author only skims the surface and de-emphasises the role that society has on it's newer generations something that is talked about in "coddling of the American mind" I think the truth starts there and ends towards this book

Good book but

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Vitally important listening, now more than ever. Eerily accurate markers for our current political climate.

Must listen

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A decent general overview, however the author sweeps the 'Coddling of the American Mind' occuring at US universities under the rug, and implies anyone concerned with this problem is engaging in fascist discourse. Read Johnathan Haidt's aforementioned book. He also makes a hilariously bad and disingenuous critique of Steven Pinker's work, which frankly, the author should be ashamed of. For a more serious look at fascism, see Roger Griffin's work, or the recent book by Madeline Albright.

A good, basic introduction to fascist politics

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.