Gregor, A. James 1929–

(Anthony James Gregor)

PERSONAL:

Born April 2, 1929, in New York, NY; son of Antonio (a factory worker) and Mary Gimigliano. Education: Columbia University, B.A., 1952, M.A., 1959, Ph.D., 1961.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Berkeley, CA. Office—Department of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Educator and writer. University of Hawaii, Honolulu, assistant professor of philosophy, 1961-63; University of Kentucky, Lexington, associate professor of philosophy, 1964-66; University of Texas at Austin, associate professor of philosophy, 1966-67; University of California at Berkeley, professor of political science, 1967—; Marine Corps University, Quantico, Virginia, Oppenheim professor of strategy, 1996-97. Adjunct professor at U.S. Department of State, School of Professional Studies, 1968—, and Marine Corps University, 1995—. Military service: U.S. Army, 1946-48.

MEMBER:

Institut International de Sociologie, American Philosophical Association, American Political Science Association, American Sociological Association.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Irwin Edman Scholar, Columbia University, 1961; Guggenheim fellow, 1974; Hebrew University fellow, 1981; Political History Prize; Instituto per la storia, 1983; Knight of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Italy, 2003.

WRITINGS:

A Survey of Marxism, Random House (New York, NY), 1965.

Contemporary Radical Ideologies, Random House (New York, NY), 1968.

The Ideology of Fascism, Free Press (New York, NY), 1969.

An Introduction to Metapolitics, Free Press (New York, NY), 1971, published with a new preface and postscript by Gregor as Metascience & Politics: An Inquiry into the Conceptual Language of Political Science, Transaction Publishers (New Brunswick, NJ), 2003.

The Interpretations of Fascism, General Learning Press (Morristown, NJ), 1974.

The Fascist Persuasion in Radical Politics, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1974.

Sergio Panunzio: Il sindacalismo ed il fondamento razionale del fascismo, G. Volpe (Rome, Italy), 1978.

The Young Mussolini and the Origins of Fascism, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 1979.

Italian Fascism and Developmental Dictatorship, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1979.

The Taiwan Relations Act and the Defense of the of China, Institute of International Studies, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 1980.

(With Maria Chang and Andrew B. Zimmerman) Ideology and Development, Sun Yat-sen and the History of Taiwan, Institute of East Asian Studies (Berkeley, CA), 1981.

(Editor) The U.S. and the Philippines: A Challenge to a Relationship, Heritage Foundation (Washington, DC), 1983.

(With Maria Chang) The Republic of China and U.S. Policy: A Study in Rights, Ethics and Public Policy Center (Washington, DC), 1983.

The Iron Triangle: A U.S. Security Policy for Asia, Hoover Institution Press (Stanford, CA), 1984.

Crisis in the Philippines: A Threat to U.S. Interests, Ethics and Public Policy Center (Washington, DC), 1984.

The China Connection: U.S. Policy and the People's Republic of China, Hoover Institution Press (Stanford, CA), 1986.

The Philippine Bases: U.S. Security at Risk, Ethics and Public Policy Center (Washington, DC), 1987.

Arming the Dragon: U.S. Security Ties with the People's Republic of China, Ethics and Public Policy Center (Washington, DC), 1988.

In the Shadow of Giants: The Major Powers and the Security of Southeast Asia, Hoover Institution Press (Stanford, CA), 1989.

Land of the Morning Calm: Korea and American Security, Ethics and Public Policy Center (Washington, DC), 1990.

Marxism, China, and Development: Reflections on Reality, Transaction Publishers (New Brunswick, NJ), 1994, revised as Marxism, China, and Development: Reflections on Theory and Reality, Transaction Publishers (New Brunswick, NJ), 1999.

Interpretations of Fascism, Transaction Publishers (New Brunswick, NJ), 1997.

Phoenix: Fascism in Our Time, Transaction Publishers (New Brunswick, NJ), 1999.

A Place in the Sun: Marxism and Fascism in China's Long Revolution, Westview Press (Boulder, CO), 2000.

The Faces of Janus: Marxism and Fascism in the Twentieth Century, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 2000.

Giovanni Gentile: Philosopher of Fascism, Transaction Publishers (New Brunswick, NJ), 2001.

(Editor, translator, and annotator) Giovanni Gentile, Origins and Doctrine of Fascism: With Selections from Other Works, Transaction Publishers (New Brunswick, NJ), 2002.

Mussolini's Intellectuals: Fascist Social and Political Thought, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 2005.

The Search for Neofascism: The Use and Abuse of Social Science, Cambridge University Press (New York, New York), 2006.

Author of monographs. Contributor to journals.

SIDELIGHTS:

A. James Gregor is a political scientist with special expertise on fascism and on the politics of the Far East. In his book The Faces of Janus: Marxism and Fascism in the Twentieth Century, Gregor explores the relationship of fascism and communism, concluding that they naturally feed into and out of each other. He shows how fascism had its beginning in communism, and how elements of fascism are integral to communism. He proposes that because of this, the breakup of the Soviet empire will naturally dispose the former Soviet states to move toward fascist governments. "The real political spectrum Gregor sees is democratic and nondemocratic," commented Harry V. Willems in a Library Journal review of The Faces of Janus. In Phoenix: Fascism in Our Time, Gregor identifies various fascist governments throughout history and provides an understanding of the current features of fascism as well as the socioeconomic and political conditions that foster it. Interpretations of Fascism is another of Gregor's works that is considered a seminal resource on the subject.

Gregor's understanding of politics in Southeast Asia and China is demonstrated in numerous books, including Land of the Morning Calm: Korea and American Security, The Republic of China and U.S. Policy: A Study in Rights, and Arming the Dragon: U.S. Security Ties with the People's Republic of China. In Land of the Morning Calm, he examines the improvements that have occurred in Korea despite the North's acceptance of Stalinism. Strategically located, Korea could play a significant role in the future of the region, and with this in mind, Gregor discusses its economic and political past and future and the implications of U.S. foreign policy in Korea. Gregor and coauthor Maria Chang take a look at another strategic stronghold, the island of Taiwan, in The Republic of China and U.S. Policy. In this book, they study Taiwan's history and its future, concluding that the island has provided an admirable model for undeveloped countries seeking to cope with Westernization.

In A Place in the Sun: Marxism and Fascism in China's Long Revolution, published in 2000, Gregor offers his interpretation of the role of European Marxist and fascist ideas on China's revolutionaries. In his detailed analysis, the author reveals a complex set of relationships between the Chinese revolution and ideologies that came from the West. "The greatest strength of this book is its thought-provoking, erudite, and eloquent … analytical survey and classification of some of the great political movements of modern times," wrote William A. Joseph in American Political Science Review. "Students of comparative revolutions will find much to contemplate in Gregor's observation that, whatever their ostensible ideological differences, these movements share many fundamental features as variants of reactive developmental nationalism."

According to Perspectives on Political Science contributor Angelika Soldan, Gregor's Mussolini's Intellectuals: Fascist Social and Political Thought is "a superbly written and supported chronological account of the evolution of the core of Italian Fascist social and political thought." In his history of Italian Fascism, the author argues that Italian Fascism may have been a flawed system of belief but that it was neither more nor less irrational than other revolutionary ideologies that appeared in the twentieth century. R.J.B. Bosworth wrote in the Historian that "the book will have value for students who do not read Italian but who want an introduction to some of the currents of fascist thought."

The author is also editor, translator, and annotator of Giovanni Gentile's Origins and Doctrine of Fascism: With Selections from Other Works. "Re-reading the Origini is a reminder that Fascism as conceived by its inventors was entirely an Italian solution to Italian problems and was chiefly concerned with the nature and identity of Italy," wrote Lincoln Allison on the Social Affairs Unit Web site.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Political Science Review, March, 2001, William A. Joseph, review of A Place in the Sun: Marxism and Fascism in China's Long Revolution, p. 235.

Historian, summer, 2006, R.J.B. Bosworth, review of Mussolini's Intellectuals: Fascist Social and Political Thought, p. 387.

Journal of Politics, May, 1997, review of Marxism, China, and Development: Reflections on Reality, p. 635.

Library Journal, Harry V. Willems, review of The Faces of Janus: Marxism and Fascism in the Twentieth Century, March 1, 2000, p. 110.

National Review, June 15, 1984, Chilton Williamson, Jr., review of The Republic of China and U.S. Policy: A Study in Rights, p. 58.

Perspectives on Political Science, winter, 2007, Angelika Soldan, review of Mussolini's Intellectuals, p. 54.

ONLINE

Social Affairs Unit Web site, http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/ (September 18, 2007), Lincoln Allison "Fascist? Moi? Lincoln Allison on Giovanni Gentle's Origins and Doctrine of Fascism."

University of California Political Science Department Web site, http://www.polisci.berkeley.edu/ (May 6, 2008), faculty profile of author.