The Fasces

"Fascism" is a word ubiquitous in our contemporary political discourse, but few know about its roots in the ancient past or its long, strange evolution to the present. In ancient Rome, the fasces were a bundle of wooden rods bound with a leather cord, in which an axe was placed--in essence, a mobile kit for corporal or capital punishment. Attendants typically carried fasces before Rome's higher officials, to induce feelings of respect and fear for the relevant authority. This highly performative Roman institution had a lifespan of almost two millennia, and made a deep impression on subsequent eras, from the Byzantine period to the present. Starting in the Renaissance, we find revivals and reinterpretations of the ancient fasces, accelerating especially after 1789, the first year of the United States' Constitution and the opening volley of the French Revolution. But it was Benito Mussolini, who, beginning in 1919, propagated the fasces on an unprecedented scale. Oddly, today the emblem has grown largely unfamiliar, which in turn has offered an opening to contemporary extremist groups. In The Fasces, T. Corey Brennan offers the first global history of the nature, development, and competing meanings of this stark symbol, from antiquity to the twenty-first century. The word "fascism" has universal awareness in contemporary political discourse, which thus makes this, the first book to trace the full arc of the fasces' almost 3,000-year history, essential reading for all who wish to understand how the past informs the present.

A wide-reaching, ambitious book presenting a global history of fasces... Brennan covers a vast sweep of time, moving from their Etruscan origins in antiquity to the revival of the symbol in fascist Europe.

Autorentext
T. Corey Brennan is a Professor of Classics at Rutgers University and author of The Praetorship in the Roman Republic and Sabina Augusta: An Imperial Journey. He has appeared on television documentaries that concern the ancient world, most recently for Netflix, BBC2, and the History Channel.

Zusammenfassung
In ancient Rome, the fasces were a bundle of wooden rods bound with a leather cord, in which an axe was placed--in essence, a mobile kit for corporal or capital punishment. This book is the first attempt to explain in detail precisely how the ancient Romans made a familiar and highly effective spectacle of the fasces, and then how later generations understood, used, and abused this symbol.

Inhalt
Acknowledgments List of Illustrations Chapter 1. Introduction to The Roman Fasces Chapter 2. Origins of The Fasces Chapter 3. Images of The Roman Fasces Chapter 4. Roman Fasces in Action Chapter 5. Limits and Discontinuities of The Fasces Chapter 6. Carrying the Fasces Chapter 7. Medieval and Renaissance Fasces Chapter 8. Early Modern and Neoclassical Fasces Chapter 9. Popular and Revolutionary Fasces Chapter 10. American Fasces Chapter 11. Constructing Fasces in Mussolini's Italy Chapter 12. Eradication of Fasces Abbreviations and Note on Translations Bibliography Illustrations

#	Onlineshop	Preis CHF	Versand CHF	Total CHF
1	Seller	0.00	0.00	0.00