The "New Man" in Radical Right Ideology and Practice, 1919-45

Jorge Dagnino, Matthew Feldman, Paul Stocker, Jorge Dagnino, Matthew Feldman, Paul Stocker, Matthew Feldman, Jorge Dagnino, Paul Stocker

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9781350123052
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781474281119
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: 20th Century History
• Index: History

Bringing together an expert group of established and emerging scholars, this book analyses the pervasive myth of the 'new man' in various fascist movements and far-right regimes between 1919 and 1945. Through a series of ground-breaking case studies focusing on countries in Europe, but with additional chapters on Argentina, Brazil and Japan, The "New Man" in Radical Right Ideology and Practice, 1919-45 argues that what many national forms of far-right politics understood at the time as a so-called 'anthropological revolution' is essential to understanding this ideology's bio-political, often revolutionary dynamics. It explores how these movements promoted the creation of a new, ideal human, what this ideal looked like and what this things tell us about fascism's emergence in the 20th century.

The years after World War One saw the rise of regimes and movements professing totalitarian aims. In the case of revolutionary, radical-right movements, these totalising goals extended to changing the very nature of humanity through modern science, propaganda and conquest. At its most extreme, one of the key aims of fascism – the most extreme manifestation of radical right politics between the wars – was to create a 'new man'. Naturally, this manifested itself in different ways in varying national contexts and this volume explores these manifestations in order to better comprehend early 20th-century fascism both within national boundaries and in a broader, transnational context.

Part One

Inaugurating the Radical Right “New Man” in Fascist Italy

1

Totalitarian Pedagogy and the Italian Youth

Luca La Rovere

The “new fascist man”: Introduction to a never-ending debate

Long considered a propaganda device, the “new man” myth availed of the illusion of man’s rebirth to conceal the reactionary nature of fascist movements and regimes and their inability to transform political and social relations in any meaningful way. Although research into fascism contained references to the fascist idea of man, reports did not acknowledge its impact on guiding regime policies and choices.

Only in the last decades have scholars begun to seriously examine the “new man” myth. Roger Griffin recognized the “palingenesis” myth, that is, renewal of society and regeneration of man, was one of the defining elements of fascism.¹ Around the same time, German–American historian George L. Mosse investigated the “new man” myth as a vehicle for transmitting values such as respectability, honesty, and industriousness, which were the cornerstones of fascism’s “anti-bourgeois revolution of the bourgeoisie.”² Even though usefully emphasizing the importance of myths in fascist regimes,³ such studies did not go beyond the culture of the “new man” and/or the aesthetic of fascist manliness.

Emilio Gentile’s research led to a new approach. From his earliest studies on the origins of fascist ideology and the party, Gentile had identified the myth of man’s regeneration through politics as a decisive feature of fascism’s totalitarian nature.⁴ In his later work, he elucidated the links between myths, ideology, politics, and organization of the masses.⁵ In 2002, Gentile wrote that the “new man” myth was not simply one of many myths that were used to mobilize the masses, but was rather the totalitarian regime’s main objective as it was essential to its great project of creating a “new fascist civilization.”⁶ His essay established some key ideas, which, I believe, are worth further examination:

1.Fascism—unlike Nazism—did not have one single “new man” model. Perfect fascist prototypes were the soldier in the Great War, the fascist action squad member, and later the citizen–soldier, citizen–producer, colonizer, and so forth. They all served to meet the needs of diverse categories of citizens, changing with internal and international politics in different phases of the regime.

2.The modernity of the “new man.” The “new man” myth aimed at creating an alternative road to modernity that was coherent with the fascist vision of society. Even when referring to the past—for instance, through the myths of the Roman legionnaire or a peasant society—the prototype did not aim at restoring an ideal model of the past.

3.The “new Italian’s” collective nature. Deriving from fascism’s militarization of politics, this feature emerged from the regime’s determination to project the individual’s existence into the public domain and make him an “organized collective man,” who was imbued with militaristic, bellicose moral principles.

4.The “anthropological revolution” experiment was extremely pervasive. It involved both the party and the state apparatus and attempted to penetrate every area of individual and collective life, so as to reshape the Italian people’s customs, mentality, and moral principles.⁷

Recognized as fundamental to totalitarian ideologies, the “new man” myth was held in common by the fascist movements and regimes that arose in Europe between the two World Wars.⁸

Despite this, attitudes to Italian fascism’s “anthropological revolution” experiment are still often influenced by the debate on its “imperfect totalitarianism,” which was ascribed to Benito Mussolini’s regime.⁹ According to some historians, the goal of “remaking the Italian people” was shared by the most radical fascists and by Mussolini himself. Like building a real totalitarian system, it was, however, destined to remain purely Utopian. It was an ideal that might have been attained but which, in fact, was not. The plan for “totalitarian regeneration” remained unfinished, first, because alternative, competing institutions like the monarchy, the Catholic Church, the armed forces, the school, and the family survived and, second, because society as a whole was reluctant to embrace fascism’s myths and values.¹⁰

Attempts by the fascist regime to “regenerate” Italians, particularly young people, are generally considered bankrupt policies. Several hypotheses were put forward to account for their failure. “Regeneration” was carried out “Italian style,” that is, superficially, with no real planning, focusing almost exclusively on outward appearances, with little concern for the real educational outcome.¹¹ According to this view, obsession with “fascist style” and the bureaucratic decline of the Partito nazionale fascista (PNF; National Fascist Party) under the leadership of Achille Starace (1931–38) were the main causes of failure. The “new men” never appeared because local party branches functioned poorly as they were unable to apply guidance from the center. The widespread corruption of the party’s ruling class caused the “collapse of the popular identification with fascism as early as the mid-thirties.”¹² Even the “national character” was held responsible for subverting fascist aims. Centuries of history resulted in an individualistic, cynical, lazy citizenry that was indifferent to politics and to the interests of the larger community and was suspicious of any form of power. Italians, unlike Germans, were anthropologically incapable of conforming to the model of the “new man.”¹³

Gentile clearly had no doubts that the “anthropological revolution experiment failed, was overwhelmed by the catastrophe of war and ended up under the ruins of the totalitarian state.” He admitted that, despite its failure, it “was, in fact, initiated and involved millions of Italians of both sexes and several generations for two decades.”¹⁴ It is true that fascism’s ambitious project to form new Italians was interrupted by the Second World War, which ended in defeat, but this does not answer questions about the effects it had on molding the Italian people’s character.

Fascism did not invent the “new Italian” myth. The idea of regenerating the Italians was widespread in Italian culture in the aftermath of Italian Risorgimento (unification) and had become very popular in the years before the First World War. In the changing conditions of postwar politics, fascism reappropriated and reshaped it.¹⁵ The fascist “new man” was not a new model of masculinity, given its traditional image of man and the relationships between men and women.¹⁶ Fascism promoted instead a new type of citizen, who completely identified with fascist values and was keen to subordinate his individuality to collective interests and the nation’s political–military goals.¹⁷

Far more interesting than the cultural background to the “new man” myth, is the study of how the regime transformed the idea of “regenerating” the Italians from a niche view held by a minority of intellectuals into a myth for the masses. Although some historiographical trends have limited the creation of a “new man” to within the bounds of a utopian experiment, it seems important to try and determine whether—and to what extent—the myth became reality.

Assessing the effects of the fascist regime’s totalitarian pedagogy is no easy task. Regeneration of the Italian people was conducted at all levels of society. Since state, the fascist party, labor unions, mass organizations, and cultural institutions were all mobilized to this end, conclusive results can only be obtained through coordinated research into each sector.¹⁸ Determining the effects on organizing the mass of Italians is even more arduous, because of difficulties in locating sources for reconstructing the influence of totalitarian pedagogy on the inclinations and thoughts of individuals who were different in age, social, and cultural level. Faced with this, I have here singled out how the new generations were trained as the preferential terrain for analyzing the relationship between the “anthropological revolution” myth and the functioning of the totalitarian organizational machine.

Monopolizing education: Fascism in schools

In the second half of the 1920s, fascism started the most important experiment in mass political pedagogy that has ever been attempted in Italian national history. Millions of young people were subjected to an incessant pedagogic barrage that aimed at inculcating fascist myths and values. They included males and females from every social class and from every corner of the land, with ages ranging from infancy to twenty-one years, whereupon they became party members. Youth was given a central role in the project to create a “new man” because fascists were convinced the great mass of adults had been hopelessly corrupted by their liberal utilitarian and individualistic upbringing. The regime also felt an urgent need to shape Italian youth into its own ideal of the virile warrior or the fascist woman, born to be a wife and mother, whose duty was to raise healthy citizens to improve the nation’s military prowess.¹⁹ In conducting its biopolitical project,²⁰ t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Contents
• Illustrations
• Contributors
• Building Illiberal Subjects: The New Man in the Radical Right Universe, 1919–45
• Part One Inaugurating the Radical Right “New Man” in Fascist Italy
• Part Two The New Man in Axis Europe
• Part Three The New Man in Radical Right Regimes beyond Europe
• Part Four The “New Man” in European Fascist Movements
• Index
• Copyright Page