I WAS RAISED AS A FASCIST

An intimate and original analysis of the emotional roots of the new far right
After more than fifteen years investigating the contemporary far right, journalist Antonio Maestre came to a striking conclusion: the usual explanations—economic insecurity,globalization or social decline—are no longer enough.
To understand today's authoritarianism, we must look somewhere far more intimate: at the emotional education of boys and the way masculinity is shaped through power,humiliation, violence and belonging.
Blending memoir, political analysis and cultural criticism,Maestre turns the investigation inward. Revisiting his own upbringing in a working-class suburb of Madrid, he uses his personal story to uncover how everyday rituals of male
socialization—from football and bullying to misogyny, emotional repression and the fear of vulnerability—can quietly prepare the ground on which authoritarian politics later thrive.
Drawing on philosophy, psychology, feminist thought and contemporary politics, I Was Raised as a Fascist offers a bold new framework for understanding one of the defining political transformations of our time.
More than a book about the far right, it suggests that the strongest antidote to authoritarianism is not ideological certainty, but a different emotional education—one rooted in empathy, care and the courage to question the models
of masculinity we inherit.

How are boys taught to become men?
A bold blend of memoir and political analysis that traces the emotional roots
of the new far right back to where they begin: the everyday education of boys.