[2][3] Griffin attempts a comprehensive survey of the illiberal right-wing[4] throughout the 20th century, including topics as diverse as radical ecologism, neo-paganism, ultra-nationalism, and fanatical racism.

Authors include an eclectic mix of philosophers, politicians, poets, agitators, and social critics, ranging from the fairly benign pessimistic poet-scholars of Weimar Germany (such as Stefan George, Ernst Jünger, and Martin Heidegger) to the rhetoric of those such as Heinrich Himmler and the American white supremacist, William Pierce.

Griffin principally examines interwar Italian Fascism and German Nazism, with political and historiographical analysis by contemporary and post-war liberals, Marxists, and conservatives.

About half of them are from Italy and Germany, plus a section on "abortive fascisms" with writings from Britain, Spain, France and numerous other countries in Europe, Africa and South America.

A section is devoted to "theories of fascism," and the book concludes with a collation of post-war writings.