Reaction and the Avant-Garde

"Reaction and the Avant-Garde" illuminates a vital facet of right-wing thought in the first decades of the century, which had a powerful hold on Europe's intellectual elite. Prominent literary figures, such as Ezra Pound, Hilaire Belloc and the Chestertons, led a revolt against liberal parliamentary democracy in Britain. This group despised parliaments as representing and embodying a 'nation'. Villis examines the literary works, private papers, correspondence and memoirs of the leaders of this anti-Semitic, anti-modern, anti-women's rights movement that formed the intellectual underpinning of European fascism.

Acknowledgments - vii
Introduction - 1
Readers, Writers and Intellectual Networks - 19
Elitism and the Revolt of the Masses - 41
The Forging of an Anti-Parliamentary Tradition - 72
The Nation - 107
The New Age, the New Witness and the Jews - 146
'Sterile Virgins on the Drab Rampage': the Image of Women in the New Ages and the New Witness - 174
Conclusion - 192
Notes - 197
Bibliography - 239
Index - 255