This volume is the new, revised edition of a research book published in Italy in 2003 (Giovanni Gentile e la “questione ebraica”, Rubbettino); up to now it is still the only organic and thorough inquiry on these issues. It devotes particular attention to the Italian racist ideology, anti-Semitism and the actual policy of the fascist regime. In this context, Gentile’s role is dealt with from three points of view: theoretically considering if his philosophy could admit a racial policy based on anti-Semitism; checking whether in his effective work as cultural manager Gentile adopted racial or even discriminating measures; reconstructing biographically what choices he made as a person towards Jewish people and colleagues. The most interesting and problematic achievement of the proposed book lies in highlighting the contradiction between Gentile’s intellecual denial of racism and his steady allegiance to the fascist regime. The Author’s argument for making this seeming incoherence possible as well as understandable is that Gentile joined the fascist regime and remained loyal to it because of his own idea of Italy’s national identity. Indeed, he believed that the regime was able to carry out the Italian Unification: this was istitutionally obtained in the struggles of the Risorgimento but was still to be accomplished on a more substantial, ideal and “ethical” level. As for Gentile’s way of thinking, this aim was of the utmost relevance. From this viewpoint the book argues that it could not ascribe to Gentile neither theories nor belief nor feelings related to anti-semitism or racism: like a large majority of his fellow citizens the philosopher accepted more or less passively the new anti-semitic laws, and only in private, benefited people affected by racial persecution, avoiding any kind of open and explicit dissent. The research reaches these conclusions on the grounds of a lot of evidence: biographical events, public documents, private statements, the analysis of Gentile’s works and the historiographical reconstruction of numerous choices he made in his political and istitutional positions. The historic evidence that proof, or at least some clues of an anti-semitic or racist vision cannot be traced in his beliefs and actions, doesn’t lead the Author to free him from his moral and civic accountability for what happened in Italy from 1938. This accountability was clear, even though he was increasingly marginalized from the end of the ‘30s. In this framework Gentile played an important role because of his egemony in the Italian cultural and academic landscape of the ‘20s and ‘30s. Gentile was the leader of at least two generations of scholars, engaged in the most prestigious universities and enhanced deep reforms in school and academic systems. This prompted the Author to pay attention to large sectors of the cultural life of the time, because it’s not exagerated to state that in Italy all the cultural life in those years passed through the hands of Gentile as a thinker, politician, ideologist and cultural manager. Therefore the book also gives an insight into the contemporary history of Italian culture and into the relationships of leading thinkers and scholars like Benedetto Croce, Antonio Gramsci, Thomas Mann, Karl Löwith, Martin Heidegger, Ernst Cassirer, Karl Vossler, Paul Oskar Kristeller, Delio Cantimori, Carlo Antoni.

Giovanni Gentile "The Philosopher of Fascism". Cultural Leadership in Fascist and Anti-Semitic Italy

FARAONE, Rosa
2017-01-01

Abstract

This volume is the new, revised edition of a research book published in Italy in 2003 (Giovanni Gentile e la “questione ebraica”, Rubbettino); up to now it is still the only organic and thorough inquiry on these issues. It devotes particular attention to the Italian racist ideology, anti-Semitism and the actual policy of the fascist regime. In this context, Gentile’s role is dealt with from three points of view: theoretically considering if his philosophy could admit a racial policy based on anti-Semitism; checking whether in his effective work as cultural manager Gentile adopted racial or even discriminating measures; reconstructing biographically what choices he made as a person towards Jewish people and colleagues. The most interesting and problematic achievement of the proposed book lies in highlighting the contradiction between Gentile’s intellecual denial of racism and his steady allegiance to the fascist regime. The Author’s argument for making this seeming incoherence possible as well as understandable is that Gentile joined the fascist regime and remained loyal to it because of his own idea of Italy’s national identity. Indeed, he believed that the regime was able to carry out the Italian Unification: this was istitutionally obtained in the struggles of the Risorgimento but was still to be accomplished on a more substantial, ideal and “ethical” level. As for Gentile’s way of thinking, this aim was of the utmost relevance. From this viewpoint the book argues that it could not ascribe to Gentile neither theories nor belief nor feelings related to anti-semitism or racism: like a large majority of his fellow citizens the philosopher accepted more or less passively the new anti-semitic laws, and only in private, benefited people affected by racial persecution, avoiding any kind of open and explicit dissent. The research reaches these conclusions on the grounds of a lot of evidence: biographical events, public documents, private statements, the analysis of Gentile’s works and the historiographical reconstruction of numerous choices he made in his political and istitutional positions. The historic evidence that proof, or at least some clues of an anti-semitic or racist vision cannot be traced in his beliefs and actions, doesn’t lead the Author to free him from his moral and civic accountability for what happened in Italy from 1938. This accountability was clear, even though he was increasingly marginalized from the end of the ‘30s. In this framework Gentile played an important role because of his egemony in the Italian cultural and academic landscape of the ‘20s and ‘30s. Gentile was the leader of at least two generations of scholars, engaged in the most prestigious universities and enhanced deep reforms in school and academic systems. This prompted the Author to pay attention to large sectors of the cultural life of the time, because it’s not exagerated to state that in Italy all the cultural life in those years passed through the hands of Gentile as a thinker, politician, ideologist and cultural manager. Therefore the book also gives an insight into the contemporary history of Italian culture and into the relationships of leading thinkers and scholars like Benedetto Croce, Antonio Gramsci, Thomas Mann, Karl Löwith, Martin Heidegger, Ernst Cassirer, Karl Vossler, Paul Oskar Kristeller, Delio Cantimori, Carlo Antoni.
2017
9781495505836
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11570/3111427
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