Description
Book SynopsisAn investigation of the central role that theories of the visual arts and creativity played in the development of fascism in France between 1909 and 1939.
Trade Review“If there is an avant-garde within the historiography of modern European culture, then Mark Antliff is one of its luminaries. This remarkable book contributes in a scholarly and exciting way to the history of ideas, art, visual culture, and politics, while enriching comparative studies in both modernism and generic fascism. The complex and ideologically sophisticated fascist milieu of inter-war France has finally been released from the prison of intellectual history: French fascism’s distinctive personality is revealed as a nexus of visionary artistic, social, and cultural schemes to regenerate the nation’s productive dynamism in a way that would heal the degeneracy of the age and place the nation at the cutting edge of modernity.”—Roger Griffin, author of
Modernism and Fascism: The Sense of a Beginning under Mussolini and Hitler“This outstanding study adds an important dimension to our understanding of French fascism. Mark Antliff deftly identifies a variety of ways in which fascists in France and elsewhere activated myths of the past to propel challenging yet seductive visions of achievable futures. This approach is not only crucial to a better grasp of the real causes of fascism’s success in the early twentieth century; it also implies a similar alertness to the threats—and the appeal—posed by the fundamentalisms that seek power in apparently democratic societies today.”—Terry Smith, editor of
In Visible Touch: Modernism and Masculinity“The book is superb on cultural politics and the various fascist discourses on art and culture in the interwar period. . . .
Avant-Garde Fascism is an important and accomplished work, and it is definitely required reading for anyone interested in either fascism or modern art.” -- Ihor Junyk * Journal of Modern History *
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction 1
Chapter 1. Fascism, Modernism, and Modernity 17
Chapter 2. The Jew as Anti-Artist: Georges Sorel and the Aesthetics of the Anti-Enlightenment 63
Chapter 3. La Cite Francaise: Georges Valois, Le Corbusier, and Fascist Theories of Urbanism 111
Chapter 4. Machine Primitives: Philippe Lamour and the Fascist Cult of Youth 155
Chapter 5. Classical Violence: Thierry Maulnier and the Legacy of the Cercle Proudhon 203
Conclusion 247
Notes 255
Bibliography 323
Index 345
