An edition of The City of Man. Il contributo politico-ideologico di G.A.Borgese e G.Salvemini all'utopia democratica di H.Broch
(2012)
The City of Man. Il contributo politico-ideologico di G.A.Borgese e G.Salvemini all'utopia democratica di H.Broch
by Ester Saletta
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Last edited by ester saletta
June 10, 2014 | History
The book is about the redefinition of the democratic concept thanks to the intellectual team work of exiled Writers like T.Mann, G.A.Borgese, G.Salvemini and H.Broch. The democratic resolution written by these authors was the result of a peacefull resistance against the growth and the spreading out of totalitarian dictatorships among Europe during World War II.
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The City of Man. Il contributo politico-ideologico di G.A.Borgese e G.Salvemini all'utopia democratica di H.Broch
2012, Aracne edizioni
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Table of Contents
ESTER SALETTA
The City of Man. L’utopia democratica di Hermann Broch e il contributo politico-ideologico di Giuseppe Antonio Borgese e di Gaetano (Aracne, Roma 2013)
Given the important but weak and erratic significance of the intellectual commitment shown by German-speaking and Italian expatriates in Great Britain and the United States against totalitarianism and in favor of the reinforcement of democratic and liberal instruments, as well as the development of the American identity as an instrument offering a democratic solution to the dramatic situation faced by those living in dictatorships, the volume examines the central role of the proactive efforts of these intellectuals whose projects were corroborated ideologically by the democratic manifesto entitled The City of Man. Indeed, this work backed causes such as the struggle against totalitarianism, the defense of democracy, the protection of human rights, and respect for human dignity. These issues were also the subject of Broch’s works after Hitler’s annexation of Austria, i.e. before the author fled to the United States, and of the political works of the two Italian exiles in the United States, Borgese and Salvemini.
While this common Italian-German ideology did not arise in the same geographical area, it shared the same time frame and subject. Following World War I, Broch was immediately active on this front in Vienna, as were Borgese in Milan and Salvemini in both Florence and Rome. In essence, all three rallied their intellectual efforts against the rise of Nazism and Fascism: Broch’s Völkerbund-Resolution (1937) and Borgese’s Golia. La marcia del fascismo (1937), as well as the efforts of Salvemini, who founded the country’s first antifascist newspaper, Non Mollare (1925), are exceptional examples.
The desire to spread democracy to counter the advance of totalitarian systems continued even after the three intellectuals left their countries and were forced to seek refuge in the United States. What is specifically evident is the lack of a common geographical ground, offset by the fact that – unknown to the three men – they were working towards a common goal: the defense of democracy. Broch’s efforts to establish a group in New York with figures such as Albert Einstein, Stefan Zweig, Jacques Maritain, Siegfried Marck and Hubertus Prinz von Löwenstein, driven by the same sentiment, parallel Borgese’s desire to establish an intellectual group revolving around his role as professor of Italian literature at the University of Chicago.
These tracks, which moved separately in space and time, converged when Broch and Borgese turned to Mann for help. Mann’s daughter Elisabeth – Borgese’s second wife – played a key role in this phase, as she helped reinforce the intellectual and political friendship linking Broch, Borgese and Mann’s group. This led to Borgese’s full participation in penning a miscellany entitled The City of Man, conceived under the influence of Salvemini’s ideas, as expressed in Under the Axe of Fascism (1936) and Prelude to World War II (1949). The book follows a comparative approach due to the study of several archival sources both in Italy and in the United States. The U.S. sources at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library and the University of Chicago allowed me to study the political convictions of Broch and Borgese regarding the need for a radical change in the European dictatorial paradigm as early as World War I, whereas the Italian sources – based also on strictly biographical elements of the men examined here – bore witness to the aim of Borgese and Salvemini to oppose Mussolini’s dictatorial methods as detrimental to human dignity and culpable of the deterioration of Italy’s historical and human dimension, which had to be reconstructed by recovering the democratic-liberal principle.
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| June 10, 2014 | Edited by ester saletta | Added new cover |
| August 29, 2013 | Edited by ester saletta | Edited without comment. |
| August 29, 2013 | Created by ester saletta | Added new book. |