Modernism and fascism ; The sense of a new beginning under Mussolini and Hitler

Intellectual debates surrounding modernity, modernism, and fascism continue to be active and hotly contested. In this ambitious book, renowned expert on fascism Roger Griffin analyzes Western modernity and the regimes of Mussolini and Hitler and offers a pioneering new interpretation of the links between these apparently contradictory phenomena. Using a wealth of examples, Griffin describes how modernism's roots lay in part in the fundamental human need to perceive a transcendent meaning and purpose to life--and to restore this purpose in times of experienced decay and social breakdown. This sense of revolution and rebirth provided the context in which fascism sought a new world based on the health and strength of the nation or race.Modernism and Fascism is an original and fascinating synthesis of data and ideas which will be of interest to art and intellectual historians, specialists in the study of modernity and modernism, and experts in fascist studies. It also offers stimulating new insights to all those concerned with the many contemporary movements (e.g. Al-Qaeda, Christian fundamentalists) prepared to fight for their belief in the transcendental meaning of life against the inroads of an increasingly globalized materialism. This is a book which promises to have a resonance far beyond the already broad academic parameters of the project, and will inspire a new wave of scholarly interest in modernity. Front Matter....Pages i-xv Introduction Aufbrucb....Pages 1-12 Front Matter....Pages 13-13 The Paradoxes of ‘Fascist Modernism’....Pages 15-42 Two Modes of Modernism....Pages 43-69 An Archaeology of Modernism....Pages 70-99 A Primordialist Definition of Modernism....Pages 100-129 Social Modernism in Peace and War 1880–1918....Pages 130-159 The Rise of Political Modernism 1848–1945....Pages 160-188 Front Matter....Pages 189-189 The Birth of Fascism from Modernism....Pages 191-218 The Fascist Regime as a Modernist State....Pages 219-249 Nazism as a Revitalization Movement....Pages 250-278 The Modernism of Nazi Culture....Pages 279-309 The Third Reich’s Biopolitical Modernism....Pages 310-335 Casting Off....Pages 336-363 Postscript: A Different Beginning?....Pages 365-369 Back Matter....Pages 370-470 Intellectual debates surrounding modernity, modernism and fascism continue to be active and hotly contested. In this ambitious book, renowned expert on fascism Roger Griffin analyzes Western modernity and the regimes of Mussolini and Hitler and offers a pioneering new interpretation of the links between these apparently contradictory phenomena. Intellectual debates surrounding modernity, modernism and fascism continue to be active and hotly contested. In this ambitious book, renowned expert on fascism Roger Griffin analyzes Western modernity and the regimes of Mussolini and Hitler and offers a pioneering new interpretation of the links between these apparently contradictory phenomena "It has been widely assumed that fascism was anti-modern, the sworn enemy of genuine culture: thus the Third Reich barbarically destroyed modernism, while fascism cynically harnessed the creativity of the artistic avant-garde and technocratic elite to reactionary ends. In contrast, Roger Griffin's Modernism and Fascism convincingly portrays fascism as a 'total' form of modernism in its own right. Like a modernist painting itself, this ambitious book transforms our understanding of the art, technology, social ethos, and politics of the first half of the twentieth century."--Jacket