An intriguing book that tries to analyse why people are attracted to fascism and authoritarianism. The crucial context is that the book is written in 1941, and clearly Fromm is trying to understand the hows and whys of what happened in Germany and Italy. He makes the link to sadomasochism and an underlying yearning to submit to the continual rise of dictators and hard men. Perhaps that has a grain of truth, and it is certainly well argued, but there was too much of a preponderance on Freud for my taste.