>>17950994
>rather to grasp the historical realities that made Europeans more inclined to adopt these seemingly unrelated concepts compared to American society.
There wasn't as much of a tradition of political liberalism. The basic structure was in place (representative parliaments, constitutions) and there were people who called themselves liberals, but these structures were weaker. It was different in the U.S., Britain and France which had either undergone revolutions much earlier or, like, Britain, was very good at reforming its social structure to more or less have the same effect. Once fascists leaped beyond ex-soldiers, it had strong appeal among the middle classes in Italy like farmers and shopkeepers who didn't like the accelerating changes that were going on, and didn't like big business, but didn't like the labor-socialism of the left either (especially in its more radical, internationalist forms). They considered themselves patriotic, "support our troops" types who liked the idea of unity and order to clean the riff-raff off the streets.