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.