“Neither Right, nor Left”: Antiliberal Support for Italian Fascism in the United States

Ambivalence toward liberal individualism and representative democracy was widespread in the United States in the decade after World War I, creating discursive space for fascist sympathies. Following Zeev Sternhell’s conceptions of fascism as ni droite, ni gauche (neither right nor left) the chapter analyzes the interactions between critiques of liberalism and praise of fascism in the writing of Richard Washburn Child (a conservative) and Anne O’Hare McCormick (a progressive). Consistent with theories of cultural transfer, it shows how these observers’ selective references to fascism led to a reimagining of the Italian example, which understated the repressive elements of Mussolini’s regime.