Now a step away from the Republican nomination, Donald Trump is keener than ever to encourage his violent fans. “Knock the crap out of them,” he says. Statements like these, combined with Trump’s xenophobia, have led to debates about whether he is, in fact, a fascist. That historians of fascism are now being asked to weigh in indicates the gravity of the matter.

No matter how deep Trump’s fascist-ish tendencies seem to go, however, there are huge differences between today’s political context and that which gave rise to figures like Hitler and Mussolini. And America’s history is more illuminating than Europe’s if we’re trying to explain the Trump phenomenon.

Senate minority leader Harry Reid had one of the better reads on the situation. As he said on the Senate floor a few weeks back, “Republicans have spent the past eight years stoking the fires of resentment and hatred, building Trump piece by piece.” Still, it was more than racist rhetoric that created the American right’s Frankenstein monster.