The Cult of Art in Nazi Germany [Hardcover]

The Cult of Art in Nazi Germanypresents a new interpretation of National Socialism, arguing that art in the Third Reich was not simply an instrument of the regime, but actually became a source of the racist politics upon which its ideology was founded. Through the myth of the Aryan race, a race pronounced superior because it alone creates culture, Nazism asserted art as the sole raison d'?tre of a regime defined by Hitler as the dictatorship of genius. Michaud shows the important link between the religious nature of Nazi art and the political movement, revealing that in Nazi Germany art was considered to be less a witness of history than a force capable of producing future, the actor capable of accelerating the coming of a reality immanent to art itself. The Cult of Art in Nazi Germanyis a provocative attempt to analyze systematically an essential characteristic of the National Socialist state, namely, the unification of art and ritual in what the author sees as 'the Nazi myth.' ...this is an intriguing book that will undoubtedly fascinate many who are interested in theories about images and their potential power. Closely argued and intellectually dazzling, this study is essential reading, not only for historians of twentieth-century art, but for anyone interested in the visual culture of modernity. The Cult of Art in Nazi Germanypresents a new interpretation of National Socialism, arguing that art in the Third Reich was not simply an instrument of the regime, but actually became a source of the racist politics upon which its ideology was founded. A good book for anyone interested in getting into the why of the Nazi movement. Eric Michaud is Professor at the ?cole des Hautes ?tudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris. A highly original work offering a wealth of new material and a radically new perspective. It could be said that this book is a highly convincing documentation of Walter Benjamin's famous statement that fascism is the aestheticisatl“&