Mussolini, Architect : : Propaganda and Urban Landscape in Fascist Italy / / Paolo Nicoloso.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter EBOOK PACKAGE Architecture and Design 2022
• VerfasserIn: Nicoloso, Paolo,
• MitwirkendeR: Notini, Sylvia,; Sabatino, Michelangelo,
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2022]; ©2022
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Series: Toronto Italian Studies
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (352 p.) :; 80 b&w illustrations

During the fascist years in Italy, architecture and politics enjoyed a close alliance. Benito Mussolini used architecture to educate the masses, exploiting the symbolic prowess of architecture as a powerful tool for achieving political consensus. Mussolini, Architect examines Mussolini in Italy from 1922 to 1943 and expands the traditional interpretations of fascism, advancing the claim that Mussolini devised and implemented architecture as a tool capable of determining public behaviour and influencing opinion. Paolo Nicoloso challenges the assertion that Mussolini was of minimal influence on Italian architecture and argues that in fact the fascist leader played a strong role in encouraging civic architectural development in order to reflect the totalitarian values of the period. Drawing on archival documents, Nicoloso lists the architects who gave Mussolini ideas and describes the times when the dictator himself sometimes picked up a pencil and suggested changes. Examining the political, social, and architectural history of the fascist period, Mussolini, Architect gives careful attention to the final years of fascist rule in order to demonstrate the extent to which Mussolini was intent on shaping Italy and its citizens through architectural projects.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- List of Abbreviations -- Introduction -- 1 Travelling to See the Buildings -- 1 The Myth of the Duce as Inaugurator -- 2 Building and Fighting -- 3 Buildings Built to “Endure” -- 4 In the City Where Fascism Was Born -- 5 Architects in the Dictator’s Entourage -- 2 Mussolini’s Rome -- 1 The Third Rome -- 2 Demolishing “with No Holds Barred” -- 3 The Keen Eye -- 4 Visits to Building Sites in Rome -- 5 Architecture and the Legacy of Fascism -- 6 Rome, “Kingdom of the Unexpected” -- 7 Rome and Berlin: Parallel Action -- 8 The North-South Imperial Axis -- 3 At Palazzo Venezia -- 1 The Success of the Exhibition of the Fascist Revolution -- 2 Restoring Augustus -- 3 Doubts about Terragni -- 4 The Rejection of Brasini’s Grandiose Architecture -- 5 Mussolini’s Oversights -- 6 Architecture for a Politics of Domination -- 7 Ponti’s Suggestions -- 8 “Rendering unto Caesar What Is Caesar’s” -- 9 Moretti Instead of Piacentini? -- 4 In the Architect’s Shoes -- 1 The Duce Approves -- 2 The Man with the Diktats -- 3 With Pencil in Hand -- 4 Advising the Architects -- 5 Zigzagging Forward -- 6 “I’m an Expert on Architecture” -- 5 Piacentini and Mussolini -- 1 The Architect of the Littorian Order -- 2 A Special Rapport -- 3 Committed to the Party -- 4 Side by Side -- 5 In Praise of Organizational Perseverance -- 6 Architecture towards a Style -- 1 In Rome’s Città Universitaria -- 2 “Life Today” Requires a “Unity of Direction” in Architecture Too -- 3 The E42 and the Matter of Style -- 4 The Swing towards Classicism -- 5 At the E42 “History Is Built” -- 6 Terragni’s Challenge, Pagano’s Silence, Bottai’s Dissent -- 7 The Totalitarian Acceleration and Architecture -- 1 Architecture for the Myths of the Totalitarian State -- 2 Piacentini’s Architectural Unity -- 3 For Imperial Rome -- 4 The 1941 “Variante” of Rome’s Urban Development Plan -- 5 Hitler’s Plan for Imperial Berlin -- 6 For Imperial Milan -- 7 A National “Unity of Direction” -- 8 A Private Monopoly in a Totalitarian Regime -- Epilogue -- Notes -- Index of Names and Subjects -- Index of Places