This First Year Seminar examines the causes of the rise of authoritarianism and dictatorship in interwar Europe and its characteristics in the two nations which experienced extended fascist rule, as well focusing on their legacy in modern politics. We assess how the elevation of the state and the nation promoted by these regimes impacted the societies involved. We study the political, social, economic, and cultural aspects of Fascism and Nazism and the ramifications -- war and genocide -- of the embrace of fascist dictatorship. We also study the less-emphasized Fascist and nationalist regimes in Hungary, Poland, Romania, Greece, Spain, and Portugal. We will also analyze the contemporary far right in Europe and the United States and ask what these movements and parties have borrowed from their predecessors in the 1920s to 1940s. Class meetings focus on intensive discussion of assigned readings of secondary sources and primary sources, including texts, images, and films. Lectures will supplement the readings and discussions, but class discussion and student presentations are central to the class. Open to first year frosh only.