pt. I. Defining generic fascism : a new consensus?. Fascism / Zeev Sternhell -- Toward a general theory of fascism / George L Mosse -- Fascism : a working definition / Stanley G. Payne -- Fascism : general introduction / Roger Griffin -- The primacy of culture : the current growth (or manufacture) of consensus within fascist studies / Roger Griffin -- The nature of 'generic fascism' : the 'fascist minimum' and the 'fascist matrix' / Roger Eatwell -- pt. II. Historical fascism : cross-national comparisons. The five stages of fascism / Robert O. Paxton -- Fascists / Michael Mann -- The 'regime-model' of fascism : a typology / Aristotle A. Kallis -- Hitler and the uniqueness of Nazism / Ian Kershaw -- pt. III. Fascism as totalitarianism and political religion. The sacralisation of politics : definitions, interpretations, and reflections on the question of secular religion and totalitarianism / Emilio Gentile -- Cloister or cluster? The implications of Emilio Gentile's ecumenical theory of political religion for the study of extremism / Roger Griffin -- Nazism and the revival of political religion theory / Richard Steigmann-Gall -- God's chosen warriors : romantic palingenesis, militarism and fascism in modern Romania / Constantin Iordachi