In On the Concept of History, Walter Benjamin seeks to understand how the rise of fascism was possible throughout the 1930s in Europe. Contending with social democracy and Stalinism the use of the Marxist “method” of knowledge of the present, historical materialism, Benjamin seeks a philosophy of history that is capable of understanding it beyond the bourgeois idea of progress that would have been responsible for the misunderstanding about fascism. Our article seeks to clarify this conception by establishing a relationship between it and the ideas of narration, experience, memory and modernity, present in the 1936 essay The Narrator, as well as some points of Benjamin's theory of knowledge. The goal is to understand fascism not merely as the opposite of progress, but as the offspring of progress, part of the era called modernity, in which individualism precludes common experiences and shared memory.In On the Concept of History, Walter Benjamin seeks to understand how the rise of fascism was possible throughout the 1930s in Europe. Contending with social democracy and Stalinism the use of the Marxist “method” of knowledge of the present, historical materialism, Benjamin seeks a philosophy of history that is capable of understanding it beyond the bourgeois idea of progress that would have been responsible for the misunderstanding about fascism. Our article seeks to clarify this conception by establishing a relationship between it and the ideas of narration, experience, memory and modernity, present in the 1936 essay The Narrator, as well as some points of Benjamin's theory of knowledge. The goal is to understand fascism not merely as the opposite of progress, but as the offspring of progress, part of the era called modernity, in which individualism precludes common experiences and shared memory.In On the Concept of History, Walter Benjamin seeks to understand how the rise of fascism was possible throughout the 1930s in Europe. Contending with social democracy and Stalinism the use of the Marxist “method” of knowledge of the present, historical materialism, Benjamin seeks a philosophy of history that is capable of understanding it beyond the bourgeois idea of progress that would have been responsible for the misunderstanding about fascism. Our article seeks to clarify this conception by establishing a relationship between it and the ideas of narration, experience, memory and modernity, present in the 1936 essay The Narrator, as well as some points of Benjamin's theory of knowledge. The goal is to understand fascism not merely as the opposite of progress, but as the offspring of progress, part of the era called modernity, in which individualism precludes common experiences and shared memory.In On the Concept of History, Walter Benjamin seeks to understand how the rise of fascism was possible throughout the 1930s in Europe. Contending with social democracy and Stalinism the use of the Marxist “method” of knowledge of the present, historical materialism, Benjamin seeks a philosophy of history that is capable of understanding it beyond the bourgeois idea of progress that would have been responsible for the misunderstanding about fascism. Our article seeks to clarify this conception by establishing a relationship between it and the ideas of narration, experience, memory and modernity, present in the 1936 essay The Narrator, as well as some points of Benjamin's theory of knowledge. The goal is to understand fascism not merely as the opposite of progress, but as the offspring of progress, part of the era called modernity, in which individualism precludes common experiences and shared memory.In On the Concept of History, Walter Benjamin seeks to understand how the rise of fascism was possible throughout the 1930s in Europe. Contending with social democracy and Stalinism the use of the Marxist “method” of knowledge of the present, historical materialism, Benjamin seeks a philosophy of history that is capable of understanding it beyond the bourgeois idea of progress that would have been responsible for the misunderstanding about fascism. Our article seeks to clarify this conception by establishing a relationship between it and the ideas of narration, experience, memory and modernity, present in the 1936 essay The Narrator, as well as some points of Benjamin's theory of knowledge. The goal is to understand fascism not merely as the opposite of progress, but as the offspring of progress, part of the era called modernity, in which individualism precludes common experiences and shared memory.Em Sobre o conceito de história, Walter Benjamin procura entender como foi possível a ascensão do fascismo durante toda a década de 1930 na Europa. Disputando com a socialdemocracia e o stalinismo o uso do “método” marxista de conhecimento do presente, o materialismo histórico, Benjamin procura uma filosofia da história que seja capaz de entendê-la para além da ideia burguesa de progresso, que teria sido responsável pela incompreensão sobre o fascismo. Nosso artigo procura esclarecer essa concepção estabelecendo uma relação entre ela e as ideias de narração, experiência, memória e modernidade, presentes no ensaio O Narrador, de 1936, além de alguns pontos da teoria do conhecimento de Benjamin. O objetivo é compreender o fascismo não como mero oposto do progresso, mas fruto dele mesmo, parte da época denominada modernidade, em que o individualismo impossibilita experiências em comum e uma memória partilhada.