American Fascism and the New Deal : The Associated Farmers of California and the Pro-Industrial Movement

Social movement theory identifies factors that can predict the success or failure of social movements; however, they have left out the influence of corporate elites. American Fascism and the New Deal makes a strong case for factoring in the strength of relevant corporate elite power in the prediction of social movements.

American Fascism and the New Deal demonstrate how fascist ideas gained popularity in the Associated Farmers of California during the 1930s and 40s. It shows that the politics of the intervening decades created economic and political policies that planted the seeds for these fascist ideas by forming alliances between the corporate-private realm and the state-public realm. These same alliances made FDR and subsequent political figures rethink the direction they wanted to take American democracy. Through a careful analysis of the Associated Farmers of California, Nelson A. Pichardo Almanzar and Brian Kulik show how the AFC formed positions in direct alliance with fascist ideas, but also why these ideas resonate with so many people even to this day.The analysis presented in American Fascism and the New Deal will be of particular interest to sociologists, especially social movement theorists; Chicana/o studies scholars; political scientists; business ethicists; and historians.