The other book, which is somewhat more controversial than Payne, is Nolte's Three Faces of Fascism. It's kind of controversial because 1) Phenomenology is real

The other book, which is somewhat more controversial than Payne, is Nolte's Three Faces of Fascism. It's kind of controversial because 1) Phenomenology is really out of style as a way of doing history 2) It analyses fascist movements within their own language/stated goals. If you identify Nazis more closely with Italian Fascists than with Soviet Communism/Stalinism then this is the book that kind of mainstreamed that view.