Ideology of Obsession

A leading member of the British Union of Fascists, and later the first leader of the National Front, this account of A.K. Chesterton's career succeeds as a biography, as well as a significant contribution to the history of British fascism and to the scholarly understanding of generic fascism.

Arthur Kenneth Chesterton, cousin of G.K. Chesterton, grew up in South Africa where he developed his "colonial outsider" view of England and of the First World War. By the age of 21, Chesterton was an archetypal "angry young man" - ex-colonial, ex-officer with literary interests and accomplishments. As an increasingly disillusioned literary critic and newspaper editor, he created a world based on his reading of English literature - an idealized version of British society. The result was a cultural despair which sealed his acceptance of fascism in 1933. In this biography, David Baker examines the socio-psychological profile of A.K. Chesterton to help explain the nature of fascism. The author questions previous academic interpretations, suggesting that a definition of fascist ideology must be broadened to take account of its fatal attraction to those who might have remained self-assured members of a democratic society.