Fascismo e Terzo Reich

by Julius Evola

Pubblicato nel 1964 e ampliato nel 1970, questo saggio su quel fenomeno politico e ideologico che furono fascismo e nazionalsocialismo conserva a decenni di distanza la sua originalità. L'autore volle precisare, nella prima edizione, che si trattava di una "analisi critica dal punto di vista della Destra": infatti, i contenuti dottrinari di fascismo e nazionalsocialismo vengono esaminati prescindendo sia dalle esaltazioni e idealizzazioni "nostalgiche", sia da una sistematica e indiscriminata denigrazione, che giunge sino alla demonizzazione acritica, assumendo invece come misura quelle idee che, secondo Julius Evola, hanno definito "la grande tradizione politica europea quale esistette prima dei sovvertimenti dell'epoca ultima".

Genres: History

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Julius Evola, born Giulio Cesare Andrea Evola, was an Italian philosopher and esoteric scholar. Born in Rome to a family of the Sicilian landed gentry, Evola was raised a strict Catholic. Despite this, his life was characterised by 'an anti-bourgeois approach' hostile to both 'the dominant tradition of the West—Christianity and Catholicism—and to contemporary civilization—the 'modern world' of democracy and materialism'.

By turns 'engineering student, artillery officer, Dadaist poet and painter, journalist, alpinist, scholar, linguist, Orientalist, and political commentator', he has been described as a 'rare example of universality in an age of specialization'. Yet behind it all lay a singular emphasis on, and pursuit of, a 'direct relationship to the Absolute'. For Evola, 'the center of all things was not man, but rather the Transcendent.' This metaphysical conviction can be seen to have determined both Evola's stance on socio-political issues, and his antipathetic attitude towards 'all professional, sentimental and family routines'.

The author of many books on esoteric, political and religious topics (including The Hermetic Tradition, The Doctrine of Awakening and Eros and the Mysteries of Love), his best-known work remains Revolt Against the Modern World, a trenchant critique of modern civilisation that has been described as 'the gateway to his thought'. Since his death, also in Rome, his writings have influenced right-wing, reactionary and conservative political thought not only in his native Italy, but throughout continental Europe and, increasingly, the English-speaking world. Nevertheless, he should not be considered primarily as a political thinker, but rather as an exponent of the wider Traditionalist School that encompasses the work of such individuals as René Guénon, Titus Burckhardt and Frithjof Schuon.