In this CHAT PreModern Forum event, T. Corey Brennan of Rutgers University focuses on a very particular aspect of “fascism”—its etymology. The terms “fascism” and “fascist” derive from the Latin word for “bundle” (fascis, plural fasces). The Latin word usually is found in the plural, and with a specific technical meaning, namely that of a bundle consisting of wooden rods around an ax. This illustrated talk sketches the global history of the nature, development, and competing meanings of this stark symbol from antiquity to the twenty-first century.