Description
Book Synopsis"Reaction and the Avant-Garde" illuminates a vital facet of right-wing thought in the first decades of the century, which had a powerful hold on Europe's intellectual elite. Prominent literary figures, such as Ezra Pound, Hilaire Belloc and the Chestertons, led a revolt against liberal parliamentary democracy in Britain. This group despised parliaments as representing and embodying a 'nation'. Villis examines the literary works, private papers, correspondence and memoirs of the leaders of this anti-Semitic, anti-modern, anti-women's rights movement that formed the intellectual underpinning of European fascism.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments – vii Introduction – 1 Readers, Writers and Intellectual Networks – 19 Elitism and the Revolt of the Masses – 41 The Forging of an Anti-Parliamentary Tradition – 72 The Nation – 107 The
New Age, the
New Witness and the Jews – 146 ‘Sterile Virgins on the Drab Rampage’: the Image of Women in the
New Ages and the
New Witness – 174 Conclusion – 192 Notes – 197 Bibliography – 239 Index – 255
