The OLLI Distinguished Speakers Series presents Professor David Baum on Fascism: The 20th Century's Most Troubling and Enduring Idea at 100. When Bard College at Simon's Rock Professor David Baum first began to be interested in the Fascist period in Italy a little over 20 years ago, Fascism seemed a dead letter, the very stuff of disinterested scholarship. Since then, of course, it’s experienced quite the revival.