A. James Gregor
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Anthony James Gregor (April 2, 1929 – August 30, 2019) was an American political scientist and
eugenicist Eugenics is a set of largely discredited beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetics, genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter the frequency of various human Phenotype, phenotypes by ...
and professor of political science at the
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
, known for his research on
fascism Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hie ...
,
Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...
, and national security.


Early life

He was born Anthony Gimigliano in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
. His father, Antonio, was a machine operator, factory worker and a nonpolitical anarchist. Gregor served as a volunteer in the
U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...
. He attended and graduated in 1952 from
Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
and thereafter served as a high school social science teacher while working for his advanced degrees. Prior to founding the
International Association for the Advancement of Ethnology and Eugenics The International Association for the Advancement of Ethnology and Eugenics (IAAEE) was an organisation that promoted eugenics and segregation, and the first publisher of ''Mankind Quarterly''. History IAAEE was founded in 1959 and has headquart ...
, he published several articles on race science and
syndicalism Syndicalism is a labour movement within society that, through industrial unionism, seeks to unionize workers according to industry and advance their demands through Strike action, strikes and other forms of direct action, with the eventual goa ...
for
Oswald Mosley Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet (16 November 1896 – 3 December 1980), was a British aristocrat and politician who rose to fame during the 1920s and 1930s when he, having become disillusioned with mainstream politics, turned to fascism. ...
's '' The European'' and Corrado Gini’s ''Genus''. Gregor's first article in the latter was a defense of Gini's theories, and the two subsequently became friends and collaborators until Gini's death in 1965.


Eugenics and philosophy

In 1959, Gregor joined with Robert E. Kuttner to found the
International Association for the Advancement of Ethnology and Eugenics The International Association for the Advancement of Ethnology and Eugenics (IAAEE) was an organisation that promoted eugenics and segregation, and the first publisher of ''Mankind Quarterly''. History IAAEE was founded in 1959 and has headquart ...
(IAAEE), where Gregor acted as secretary. According to Gregor, the organization was founded to restore "an intellectual climate in the U.S., and throughout the Western World, which would permit a free and open discussion of racial ... problems." The organization was funded by segregationist Wickliffe Draper to oppose the civil rights movement.Tucker, William H. (2002)
Our Source of Funds: The Campaign against Civil Rights.
in ''The Funding of Scientific Racism: Wickliffe Draper and the Pioneer Fund.'' University of Illinois Press,
As part of this group, Gregor was also an assistant editor of, and contributor to, ''
Mankind Quarterly ''Mankind Quarterly'' is a pseudoscientific journal that covers physical and cultural anthropology, including human evolution, intelligence, ethnography, linguistics, mythology, archaeology, and biology. It has been described as a "cornersto ...
'', the organization's journal. During this period he undertook anthropological field studies of aboriginal people in Central Australia, and similar studies in South Africa and in the southern United States. In 1960, he obtained employment as a philosophy instructor at
Washington College Washington College is a private liberal arts college in Chestertown, Maryland. Maryland granted Washington College its charter in 1782. George Washington supported the founding of the college by consenting to have the "College at Chester" name ...
, and in 1961 he received his doctorate at Columbia as an Irwin Edman Scholar and with Distinction in History after his dissertation on
Giovanni Gentile Giovanni Gentile ( , ; 30 May 1875 – 15 April 1944) was an Italian pedagogue, philosopher, and politician. He, alongside Benedetto Croce, was one of the major exponents of Italian idealism in Italian philosophy, and also devised his own sys ...
. Gregor became assistant professor of philosophy at the
University of Hawaii A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...
from 1961 to 1964. He became an associate professor of philosophy at the universities of Kentucky and Texas between 1964 and 1967. Gregor joined the Political Science Department at the University of California at Berkeley in 1967 where he remained until his retirement.


Study of fascism

Gregor was part of a movement of scholars in the 1960s who rejected the traditional interpretation of fascism as an ideologically empty, reactionary, antimodern dead end. He claimed
Italian fascism Italian fascism (), also called classical fascism and Fascism, is the original fascist ideology, which Giovanni Gentile and Benito Mussolini developed in Italy. The ideology of Italian fascism is associated with a series of political parties le ...
owed a major debt to European ideological currents in sociology and political theory. Gregor described fascism as a coherent and serious theory of state and society, and argued that it played a revolutionary and modernizing role in European history. His theory of generic fascism portrayed it as a form of "developmental dictatorship." Since the 1970s, Gregor spent most of his academic research on the study of fascism and it is for this that he is best known. In 1969, he published ''The Ideology of Fascism: The Rationale of Totalitarianism''; in 1974, he wrote ''The Fascist Persuasion in Radical Politics''. Since then he published other works on the subject, such as ''Mussolini's Intellectuals'', ''The Search for Neofascism'', and ''Marxism, Fascism, and Totalitarianism''. Gregor argued that scholars do not agree on the definition of fascism, stating in 1997 that "Almost every specialist has his own interpretation." He argued that Marxist movements of the 20th century discarded Marx and Engels and instead adopted theoretical categories and political methods much like those of Mussolini. In ''The Faces of Janus'' (2000) Gregor asserted that the original "Fascists were almost all Marxists—serious theorists who had long been identified with Italy's intelligentsia of the Left." In ''Young Mussolini'' (1979), Gregor describes Fascism as "a variant of classical Marxism." According to Gregor, many revolutionary movements have assumed features of paradigmatic Fascism, but none are its duplicate. He said that post-Maoist China displays many of its traits. He denied that paradigmatic fascism can be responsibly identified as a form of right-wing extremism. Sean Kennedy in '' Canadian Journal of History'' said in 2013, "Over a long and distinguished career A. James Gregor has advanced some controversial interpretations of political ideologies. In particular, he holds that the Italian fascist regime is best understood as a "developmental dictatorship," distinct from Nazism in key ways; a thesis that has proven surprisingly influential since 1945." According to
Roger Griffin Roger David Griffin (born 31 January 1948) is a British professor of modern history and political theorist at Oxford Brookes University, England. His principal interest is the socio-historical and ideological dynamics of fascism, as well as v ...
, Gregor wrote an influential early comprehensive survey of existing theoretical models of fascism. Per Andreas Umland writing for ''The American Historical Review'' in 2013, "A. James Gregor has, for half a century, been one of the major makers and shapers of the discipline of comparative fascism."


International relations

Gregor said that he was committed to the American form of democratic liberalism, as he said that is the most effective system of government and the most likely to endure. In the 1960s, Gregor held numerous workshops and lectures to convince policymakers and academics to be supportive of the US role in the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
. During the 1970s and 1980s Gregor served as an uncompensated adviser to Filipino dictator
Ferdinand Marcos Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. (September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino lawyer, politician, dictator, and Kleptocracy, kleptocrat who served as the tenth president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled the c ...
, who flew him to
Honolulu Honolulu ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of Honol ...
as part of a "counter-propaganda program", where he argued that the US should withhold support from Marcos's democratic opposition over the latter's opposition to US military bases, while downplaying allegations of
human rights abuses Human rights are universally recognized moral principles or norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both national and international laws. These rights are considered inherent and inalienable, meaning t ...
as "undocumented or purely hearsay". Gregor furnished names of "other conservative academicians" who would be useful for similar work, which were forwarded to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. His 1986 book, ''The China Connection: U.S. Policy and the People's Republic of China'' and his 1987 follow-up, ''Arming the Dragon: U.S. Security Ties with the People's Republic of China'', discussed Sino-American relations. In 1989 he wrote ''In the Shadow of Giants: The Major Powers and the Security of Southeast Asia''. Gregor was named to the Oppenheimer Chair of Warfighting Strategy 1996–1997 at the Marine Corps University in Quantico. Gregor translated some of the works of Italian fascist philosopher
Giovanni Gentile Giovanni Gentile ( , ; 30 May 1875 – 15 April 1944) was an Italian pedagogue, philosopher, and politician. He, alongside Benedetto Croce, was one of the major exponents of Italian idealism in Italian philosophy, and also devised his own sys ...
into English, together with a commentary on Gentile's political thought. Until his retirement in 2009, he taught a series of political science courses on revolutionary change, Marxism, and fascism at UC Berkeley. In 2014, Gregor published ''Marxism and the Making of China''. In 2016, his work, "Reflections on Italian Fascism" was published in an English and Italian edition. His final project was an analytic study of the transformative revolution that shaped the twentieth century. In 2014, Princeton University Press incorporated his volumes, ''Italian Fascism and Developmental Dictatorship'', and ''The Fascist Persuasion in Radical Politics,'' among the books in their "Princeton Legacy Library."


Academic achievements

Gregor was made a national
Guggenheim Fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon individuals who have demonstrated d ...
; a Senior Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Social Studies at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...
; H. L Oppenheimer Professor at the Marine Corps University, Quantico, Virginia; and a Knight of the
Order of Merit of the Italian Republic The Order of Merit of the Italian Republic () is the most senior Italian order of merit. It was established in 1951 by the second President of Italy, President of the Italian Republic, Luigi Einaudi. The highest-ranking honour of the Republi ...
.


Books

*''A Survey of Marxism: Problems in Philosophy and the Theory of History'', New York : Random House, 1965 *''Contemporary Radical Ideologies: Totalitarian Thought in the Twentieth Century, ''New York: Random House, 1969 *''The Ideology of Fascism: the rationale of totalitarianism'', New York: Free Press, 1969. "L'Ideologia del fascismo", Rome: Edizioni del Borghese, 1974; reprint "L'Ideologia del fascismo: Il fondamento razionale del totalitarismo," Rome: Lulu, 2013. *''An Introduction to Metapolitics: A Brief Inquiry into the Conceptual Language of Political Science''. New York: Free Press, 1971; reprinted as "Metascience and Politics: An Inquiry into the Conceptual Language of Political Science" With a new preface and postscript by the author. New Brunswick: Transaction, 2003. *''The Fascist Persuasion in Radical Politics'', Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1974 *''Interpretations of Fascism'', Morristown: General Learning, 1974; Revised reprint New Brunswick: Transaction, 2000, with a new introduction by the author; "Il Fascismo: Interpretazioni e giudizi" Rome: Antonio Pellicani Editore, 1997, and a third edition, published Florence: LoGisma, 2016. *"Sergio Panunzio: Il sindacalismo ed il fondamento razionale del fascismo," Rome: Volpe, 1978, New, enlarged edition, Rome: Lulu, 2014. *"Roberto Michels e l'ideologia del fascismo," Rome: Volpe, 1979, reprint, Rome: Lulu, 2015. *''Young Mussolini and the intellectual origins of Fascism'', Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979. *''Italian Fascism and Developmental Dictatorship'', Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1979. Reprinted in the Princeton Legacy Library in 2014. *"The Taiwan Relations Act and the Defense of the Republic of China", Berkeley: Institute of International Studies, 1980. *''Ideology and development: Sun Yat-sen and the Economic History of Taiwan'', with Maria Hsia Chang and Andrew B. Zimmerman, China research monographs, Center for Chinese Studies, University of California, Berkeley, no. 23, 1981. *"Essays on U.S.-Philippine Relations," Editor. Washington, D.C.: Heritage Foundation, 1983. *"The Iron Triangle: A U.S. Security Policy for Northeast Asia," Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1984. *"The Philippine Bases: U.S. Security at Risk", Washington D.C.: Ethics and Public Pollcy, 1987. *''The China Connection: U.S. policy and the People's Republic of China'', 1986. *''Arming the Dragon: U.S. Security Ties with the People's Republic of China'', 1987. *''In the Shadow of Giants: the Major Powers and the Security of Southeast Asia'', 1989. *"Land of the Morning Calm: U.S. Interests and the Korean Peninsula", Washington, D.C.: Ethics and Public Policy, 1989 *''Marxism, China, & Development: Reflections on Theory and Reality'', New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publisher, 1995 *''Phoenix: Fascism in Our Time''. New Brunswick: Transaction, 1999. *'' The Faces of Janus: Marxism and Fascism in the Twentieth Century''. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000. Spanish edition, "Los Rostros de Jano: Marxismo y Fascismo en el siglo XX", Universitat de Valencia, 2002. *''Giovanni Gentile: philosopher of fascism'', New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 2001; Italian edition, "Giovanni Gentile: Il filosofo del fascismo", Lecce: Pensa, 2014. *''A Place in the Sun: Marxism and Fascism in China's Long Revolution'', Westview Press, 2000 * Translation from the Italian: ''Origins and Doctrine of Fascism: Giovanni Gentile'', Transaction Publishers, 2nd ed. 2004 *''The Search for Neofascism'', Cambridge University Press, 2006. *''Mussolini's Intellectuals: Fascist Social and Political Thought'', Princeton University Press, new ed. 2006 *''Marxism, Fascism, and Totalitarianism: Chapters in the Intellectual History of Radicalism'', Stanford University Press, 2008. *''Totalitarianism and Political Religion: An Intellectual History'', Stanford University Press, 2012. Czech edition,"Totalitarismus a politickḕ náboženstvi" Brno: Center for the Study of Democracy and Culture, 2015 *''Marxism and the Making of China: A Doctrinal History'', Palgrave-Macmillan, 2014 *''Reflections on Italian Fascism: An Interview with Antonio Messina'', Berlin: Logos Verlag, 2015; Italian edition, ''Riflessioni sul fascismo italiano'', Firenze: Apice Libri, 2016.


References


Further reading

* – 1954 through 1998
ResearchGate profile
– With bibliography from 1961 through 2018 * Becher, Phillip. "Apartheid, authoritarianism and anticolonial struggles viewed from the Right. Critical perspectives on A. James Gregor’s search for fascism in the Global South," ''Acta Academica'' (2022), 54(3): 108-130. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gregor, A. James 1929 births 2019 deaths Writers from New York City 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers 21st-century American historians American political scientists Historians of fascism University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty American eugenicists Historians from New York (state) Historians from California 20th-century American male writers American people of Italian descent American fascists