“Can It Happen Here? Did It Happen Here? A Debate about Facism

Since the election of Donald Trump, politicians, historians, social scientists, and pundits have been faced with the question: Are we threatened by fascism? Some see striking connections between our moment and the interwar period in Europe; others question if drawing such connections reflects both mistaken attempts at analogizing and Eurocentrism as well as American provincialism. The panel will engage the conceptual issues around definitions, the challenge of deploying the past to understand the present, and more specific analytical questions about what fascism in the twenty-first century might look like.

Participants
Daniel Jenkins, Wesleyan University
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, New York University
Corey Robin, City University of New York
Jason Stanley, Yale University
Jan-Werner Müller, Chair, Princeton University

The occasion for the panel discussion is the publication of the volume edited by Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins “Did It Happen Here? Perspectives on Fascism and America.” The book was extensively discussed in a recent article in The New Yorker.