These concise guides are an antidote to confusion, tracing major political ideas from their origins to today's headlines.

Hitler's salute. Mussolini's glare. The swastika. The jackboot. These symbols of fascism's past loom large in the popular imagination - so why is the word itself so hard to define?

Unlike most major political ideologies, fascism has no clear-cut intellectual foundation. It appeals to some of the very darkest instincts in human nature: the hatred of difference, the desire to control, the delight in violence. The story of fascism shows us what happens when these instincts consume entire nations.

In Fascism: The Story of an Idea, Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey lay out in clear and accessible terms the origins of fascism: what happened, how it happened and why. It is only by understanding fascism's beginnings that we can start to understand what it means today - and guard against those who seek its return.