Decentering Europe and Teaching a Global History of Fascism through East Asia

Fascism has long been understood, and taught, in the context of European history. Ironically, the current dominant analytical paradigm of ‘generic fascism’ has, until recently, explicitly rejected the applicability of ‘fascism’ to non-Western contexts, including Asia. However, the growing scholarship on transnational fascism and modern Asian history has shown how fascism’s representation of an alternative form of modernity to capitalism and communism gave it expansive and durable appeal across the globe. Moreover, in contrast to the assumption of fascism as primarily an aggressive and expansionist form of nationalism, the case of postcolonial Korea also demonstrates how fascism could be expressed and developed within anticolonial nationalism. These historiographical developments must also be reflected in the classroom. I discuss my own approach to teaching the history of fascism, one that seeks to accommodate European and Asian history. I emphasise the necessity of revising our methods of teaching fascism to incorporate a global perspective.