Modernism and Fascism: The Sense of a Beginning under Mussolini and Hitler [Hardcover]

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.Introduction: Aufbruch! PART I:THE SENSE OF A BEGINNING IN MODERNISM The paradoxes of 'fascist modernism' Two modes of modernism An archaeology of modernism A primordialist theory of modernism Social modernism 1880-1918 The rise of political modernism 1848-1945 PART II: FASCISM'S MODERNIST STATE The birth of Fascism from modernism The Fascist regime as a Modernist State Nazism as a revitalization movement The modernism of Nazi culture The Third Reich's biopolitical modernism Casting off Postscript : A Different beginning Bibliography Index

'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

'What a tour de force you have produced! I send my warmest congratulations!...This is indeed a bold and invigorating discussion based on an absolutely admirable range of up-to-date interdisciplinary reference...I think you have an enormously important book here, one that deserves and will receive a wide readership - not just academic colleagues, but students, and even the broader public...I am absolutely delighted and bubbling with excitement! Thank you for the pleasure - it is very rare that I become this effusive.' - Modris Eksteins, Professor of History, University of Toronto, Canada

'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 thatl³$