1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910458616003321

Autore

Baxa Paul <1968->

Titolo

Roads and ruins : the symbolic landscape of fascist Rome / / Paul Baxa

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Toronto, [Ontario] ; ; Buffalo, [New York] ; ; London, [England] : , : University of Toronto Press, , 2010

©2010

ISBN

1-4426-9737-7

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (249 p.)

Collana

Toronto Italian Studies

Disciplina

945.632091

Soggetti

Fascism - Italy - Rome - History - 20th century

Fascism and culture - Italy - Rome - History - 20th century

Roads - Political aspects - Italy - Rome - History - 20th century

Streets - Political aspects - Italy - Rome - History - 20th century

City planning - Political aspects - Italy - Rome - History - 20th century

Landscapes - Political aspects - Italy - Rome - History - 20th century

Antiquities - Political aspects - Italy - Rome - History - 20th century

Electronic books.

Rome (Italy) Antiquities, Roman

Rome (Italy) Politics and government 1870-1945

Rome (Italy) History 1870-1945

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Preface: Death on the Via del Mare -- Introduction: Rome and Fascism -- 1. The Landscape of the War -- 2. Roads to Rome: The Blackshirts and the città nemico -- 3. Demolitions: De-familiarizing the Roman Cityscape -- 4. 'An uninterrupted racecourse': Fascism's Roman Roads -- 5. The Palazzo and the Boulevard -- 6. Resurrecting a Pagan Landscape -- 7. Return of the Roman -- Conclusion: The Cinematic City -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

In the 1930s, the Italian Fascist regime profoundly changed the landscape of Rome's historic centre, demolishing buildings and displacing thousands of Romans in order to display the ruins of the



pre-Christian Roman Empire. This transformation is commonly interpreted as a failed attempt to harmonize urban planning with Fascism's ideological exaltation of the Roman Empire.Roads and Ruins argues that the chaotic Fascist cityscape, filled with traffic and crumbling ruins, was in fact a reflection of the landscape of the First World War. In the radical interwar transformation of Roman space, Paul Baxa finds the embodiment of the Fascist exaltation of speed and destruction, with both roads and ruins defining the cultural impulses at the heart of the movement. Drawing on a wide variety of sources, including war diaries, memoirs, paintings, films, and government archives, Roads and Ruins is a richly textured study that offers an original perspective on a well known story.