Ishay Landa – författare

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 élites 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."

The Overman in the Marketplace explores the emergence and significance of "a Nietzschean heroic model" in twentieth-century popular culture, some notable examples of which are such pop culture icons as James Bond, Tarzan, Hannibal Lecter and Ayn Rand's heroes. Taking on the nineteenth-century romantic rebellion against realism, the Nietzschean hero becomes a crusader against the perceived leveling-down of mass society. The bourgeois, realistic hero is ousted in favor of a neo-aristocratic hero who roams beyond good and evil, no longer bound to any universalistic mission, in fact doing all he can to repel the rising tides of egalitarianism. This engaging book aims at integrating the analysis of Nietzschean heroism into a comprehensive social and ideological critique. The Overman in the Marketplace is a captivating text that will appeal to those interested in philosophy and popular culture.

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 élites 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."

20th century European Fascism is conventionally described as a fierce assault on liberal politics, culture and economics. Departing from this analysis, The Appentice's Sorcerer highlights the long overlooked critical affinities between the liberal tradition and fascism. Far from being the antithesis of liberalism, fascism both in ideology and practice, was substantially, if dialectically, indebted to liberalism; particularly its economic variant.