Cart
Free Shipping in Australia
Proud to be B-Corp

Fascism and the Masses Ishay Landa

Fascism and the Masses By Ishay Landa

Fascism and the Masses by Ishay Landa


$117.19
Condition - New
Only 2 left

Summary

Departing from the conventional image of fascism as mass-driven, this book analyzes the effort of interwar European fascism to defeat the masses. Fascism endeavored to terminate the secular advance of egalitarian and democratic trends, resisting what Nietzsche described as the reign of the peaceful and mediocre Last Humans.

Fascism and the Masses Summary

Fascism and the Masses: The Revolt Against the Last Humans, 1848-1945 by Ishay Landa

Highlighting the mass nature of interwar European fascism has long become commonplace. Throughout the years, numerous critics have construed fascism as a phenomenon of mass society, perhaps the ultimate expression of mass politics. This study deconstructs this long-standing perception. It argues that the entwining of fascism with the masses is a remarkable transubstantiation of a movement which understood and presented itself as a militant rejection of the ideal of mass politics, and indeed of mass society and mass culture more broadly conceived. Thus, rather than massifying society, fascism was the culmination of a long effort on the part of the elites and the middle-classes to de-massify it. The perennially menacing mass - seen as plebeian and insubordinate - was to be drilled into submission, replaced by supposedly superior collective entities, such as the nation, the race, or the people. Focusing on Italian fascism and German National Socialism, but consulting fascist movements and individuals elsewhere in interwar Europe, the book incisively shows how fascism is best understood as ferociously resisting what Elias referred to as the civilizing process and what Marx termed the social individual. Fascism, notably, was a revolt against what Nietzsche described as the peaceful, middling and egalitarian Last Humans.

Fascism and the Masses Reviews

I don't believe I exaggerate when I say this is the most significant work on the subject since Lukacs' The Destruction of Reason or Trotsky's great, prophetic writings of the 1930s. (...) Landa's account contains a strong, uplifting and profound humanity as he reminds us that 'the last humans' also represent our last best hope.

- Tony McKenna, Marx & Philosophy Review of Books

Fascism and the Masses is an immensely rich and rewarding text, drawing from an unbelievably wide array of material.

- Guy Lancaster, Capital & Class

About Ishay Landa

Ishay Landa is Senior Lecturer of History at the Israeli Open University.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Masses and the Fascist Political Unconscious 1. The Rise of the Last Human I: The Formation of Mass Society 2. The Rise of the Last Human II: The Opposition to Mass Society 3. Fascism and Mass Politics 4. Fascism and Mass Society I: Cultural Questions 5. Fascism and Mass Society II: Consumption, Leisure, Americanism 6. The Wandering Womb: Fascism and Gender 7. The Wandering Jew: National Socialism and Antisemitism. Epilogue: Nietzsche, the Left, and the Last Humans

Additional information

NLS9780367893064
9780367893064
0367893061
Fascism and the Masses: The Revolt Against the Last Humans, 1848-1945 by Ishay Landa
New
Paperback
Taylor & Francis Ltd
2019-12-17
432
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a new book - be the first to read this copy. With untouched pages and a perfect binding, your brand new copy is ready to be opened for the first time

Customer Reviews - Fascism and the Masses