Introduction: in search of a civil religion; the holy militia; the fatherland dons the black shirt; the archangel of this world; the liturgy of collective harmony; the temples of the faith; Italy's new god.
Emilio Gentile is Professor of Contemporary History in the Faculty of Political Science at the University of La Sapienza, Rome.
[This book] has precipitated both new research into, and vigorous
theoretical debate about the myths, rituals, symbols, monuments and
other spectacles of Fascist Italy...[Gentile's] account is
undoubtedly the best brief introduction to the Italian Fascists'
use of public spectacle, ranging from annual commemorations of the
March on Rome and other key events in the Fascist calendar to the
construction of monumental architecture.
*South European Society & Politics*
Emilio Gentile is one of Italy's most prolific and influential
students of Italian fascism, and it is good to have this thoroughly
researched work, published in Italian in 1993, available in a
worthy English translation...Gentile has made a major contribution
not only to Italian history but to our ongoing effort to grasp the
contours of the modern political experiment.
*American Historical Review*
The author's central purpose in [this] book is to ask whether
Italian fascism truly was a religion. Its fusion of politics and
art, commitment of self to a higher purpose outside the self and
appropriation of a people's existing myths makes the answer a
resounding yes...[Gentile] tells his story of Italian fascism's
myths, rituals and monuments well in this book.
*Washington Times*
Gentile's superb study, originally published in Italy in 1993, is
the fruition of articles he has previously written on fascists
Italy's institutionalization of a new civic religion, the first
since the French Revolution. Under fascism the political arena
became permeated with myths, rites, and symbols of a secular
religion, imbued with fundamental values, and intended to mold the
moral consciousness and meaning of existence for all Italians.
Gentile traces the foundations of this civic religion...[T]his fine
English translation of Gentile's innovative and well-illustrated
work is an invaluable addition to the literature on the
sacralization of politics.
*Choice*
Emilio Gentile is one of the most important and innovative
historians working on Fascism anywhere today...Harvard University
Press have now translated one of his most interesting and
potentially controversial books, originally entitled Il culto del
littono (The Cult of the Lictor, 1993), and it is full of
challenging insights into the strange hybrid creature that was
Italian Fascism. It is sure to take its deserved place as a major
reinterpretation of the Fascist phenomenon...Gentile's book
is...full of exciting detail, insight and clarity of
direction...This is an important work, and its translation into
English should be greatly welcomed.
*Patterns of Prejudice [UK]*
Gentile's mastery of Italian history and of the literature on
fascism is dazzling. The Sacralization of Politics in Fascist Italy
is beautifully written and has extraordinary breadth, outstanding
range, conceptual unity, and an uncanny ability to cite just the
right bit of evidence at each step of the way. I would not be a bit
surprised if it became a classic work.
*Walter L. Adamson, author of Avant-Garde Florence: From
Modernism to Fascism*
This book penetrates to the core of the fascist experience. It
analyzes for the first time its political liturgy as a means of
self-representation; it gives a whole new dimension to the ideals
upon which fascist rule was based. Among recent works on fascism,
this book makes one of the most original and essential
contributions.
*George L. Mosse, author of The Culture of Modern
Europe*
Gentile's book is the finest work in any language in explaining
fully the development of Italian Fascism as a civic and political
religion. In all the lengthy bibliography on Fascism, none other
makes this fundamental aspect of Fascism so understandable. I
consider it one of the five or six really basic books on Italian
Fascism.
*Stanley. G. Payne, author of A History of Fascism,
1914-1945*
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