Searching for Antifascism. Historiography, the Crisis of Liberal State and the Birth of Fascism and Antifascism in Italy, Spain and Portugal

This chapter aims to analyse how Italian, Spanish and Portuguese historiographies have dealt with the crisis of liberal institutions in the 1920s, the origins of fascist and antifascist movements and the rise of dictatorships. In particular, the author will try to demonstrate that between the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s the interpretation of fascism and anti-fascism alike underwent a phase of transformation, due to the changing international and geopolitical context. This has led to a new wave of studies on fascism and violence that so far has not caused any major shifts in the interpretation of anti-fascism in these countries. Nonetheless, a comparative investigation of the three cases, highlighting the similarities and differences between them, can help clarify the meaning and understanding of both fascism and antifascism.