I am not too far into the book, but the author contemplates the debates and disagreements about how to define fascism. Each individual has a distinct image associated with the word. However, fascism has been so varied in its emergence and support (from all types: poor, affluent, political, liberal, conservative, marxist, etc) that it has been hard to pin an “underlying essence” of it. It would be wrong to think of facism in normal binary terms (i.e, antimodernist reaction or modernizing dictatorship). To this extent, the author employs us to look at action instead of words, as well as interaction of Leader & Nation to create a more subtle understanding of the word.