Synopses & Reviews
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.
Review
"This is an extraordinary book: the most important to appear on the history of fascism in a decade or more. It is extremely original: not merely a pleasure, but even exciting, to read. More than any other study of recent years it accomplishes a sort of 'paradigm shift' in fascist studies."Stanley Payne, author of A History of Fascism:1914-1945 "I am truly enchanted - I thought that nothing new and eye-opening could be said on this topic, and Griffin proved me wrong."Zygmunt Bauman, author of Modernity and the Holocaust "An enormously important book: one that deserves a wide readership - not just academic colleagues, but students, and even the broader public."Modris Eksteins, author of The Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age
Review
"A product of enormous erudition and profound thought. I am truly enchanted --I thought that nothing new and eye-opening can be said on the topic, and (Griffin) proved me wrong...Congratulations on the great oeuvre."--Zygmunt Bauman, Emeritus Prof of Sociology, Leeds University, UK
"This is a fabulous book. It is a grand synthesis which successfully takes the premise of (Griffin's) first book regarding the centrality of palingenesis to fascism and demonstrates that it is integral to modernism itself. . . a major contribution!"--Mark Antliff, Professor of Art History, Duke University
"I found this beautifully written and absorbing--an incredible synthesis of material from such a range of sources from the literary to contemporary film!"-- Josephine Reynell, Director of Studies for Human Sciences, Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University, UK
'This is an extraordinary book, the most important to appear on the history of fascism in a decade or more...the book itself is extremely original, not merely a pleasure, but even exciting, to read. More than any other study of recent years it accomplishes a sort of 'paradigm shift' in fascist studies.' - Stanley G. Payne, author of A History of Fascism, 1914-1945'
'In future whoever wants to talk about fascism will have to take this book into account.' - H-Soz-u-Kult
'This book is an exceptional work of analysis. It's unique and comprehensive perspective opens a window on a past that may become the future.' - Tom Baugh, Green Institute
'Griffin's highly-detailed book reveals his vast knowledge of modern and fascist art, architecture and literature.' - Marla Stone, Modernism/Modernity
'The quality of Griffin's work lies in the fact that it offers a highly original, thought-provoking and challenging attempt at a synthesis in this difficult field of research...it is a highly stimulating and often persuasive study of fascism' - Thomas Rohkrämer, Lancaster
Synopsis
In this book, a leading scholar of fascism presents a concise distillation of more than a decade's research and thinking on the subject.
Synopsis
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.
About the Author
ROGER GRIFFIN is Professor in Modern History at Oxford Brookes University, UK. His major work is The Nature of Fascism (1991), which established the first new theory of generic fascism for over a decade. It is a theory that continues to have a major influence on the teaching and development of fascist studies by political scientists and historians alike. This is his first authored book since that 1991 breakthrough. He has also edited Fascism, a documentary reader of primary sources relating to fascism published by OUP (1995), International Fascism. Theories, Causes, and the New Consensus, a documentary reader of secondary sources published by Arnold in 1998, and the five volumes of secondary sources relating to fascism in Routledge's Critical Concepts in Political Science series (1993).
Table of Contents
Preface: On the Prow of the Titanic (Bound for Bethlehem) * PART ONE: ANTHROPOLOGICAL MODERNISM * Resolving the Aporias of Fascist Modernism * Two Modes of Modernism * Towards an Archaeology of Modernism * The Archetypal Substratum of Modernism * Renewing Society in the "Age of Clay": 1880-1918 * Political Modernism and the Nature of Fascism * PART TWO: THE PRAXIS OF FASCIST MODERNISM * Modernism and the Birth of Italian Fascism * The Fate of Modernism under Italian Fascism * Nazism as a Revitalization Movement * The Alternative Modernism of Nazi Culture * The Biopolitical Modernism of the Third Reich * Three Endings and a Conclusion