Fascism's Urban Epicenter

Remaking Rome in the Era of Charismatic Politics

Series: 

This book re-imagines the heart of Rome, animating it with the mass rituals of Mussolini’s pioneering regime of twentieth-century totalitarianism. It retrieves from a post-war amnesia the ceremonial events, urban sites, and historic monuments of the Duce’s charismatic rulership, demonstrating how architecture and urbanism functioned as instruments of persuasion in fashioning a fevered national identity. Piazza Venezia and its surrounding structures emerge anew as material and spatial exemplars of an illiberal modernity, first as incubator and then as cockpit of a novel form of politics. Here you will experience the frenzied crowd at pavement level as a quintessential phenomenon of Fascist rule.
Copyright Year:
2026
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ISBN:
978-90-04-74352-6
Publication:
19 Jan 2026
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ISBN:
978-90-04-74351-9
Publication:
19 Feb 2026
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John Beldon Scott, Ph.D. (1982), Rutgers University, is Professor Emeritus at the University of Iowa. His books include Images of Nepotism: The Painted Ceilings of Palazzo Barberini (Princeton, 1991) and Architecture for the Shroud: Relic and Ritual in Turin (Chicago, 2003).
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
List of Figures
Abbreviations

Introduction: Architecture and Urbanism of Illiberal Modernity
 1 Totalitarian Manqué
 2 Engaged Scholarship

1 Charisma
 1 Palazzo Chigi
 2 Weber’s Concept
 3 Fascist Disciple
 4 Collective Psychology

2 Palazzo and Piazza
 1 Condottiero in His Fortress
 2 New Vatican: Constructing Palazzo Venezia
 3 Façade and Balcony
 4 Urban Setting: Unloved Vittoriano Redeemed
 5 Palazzo Venezia Challenges
 6 Heterogeneous Ensemble
 7 Beyond the Piazza: Urban Nodal Point

3 Papal Palace into Duce’s Palace
 Plan and Function
 1 Restoration and Romanità
 2 Sala del Mappamondo
 3 Europa
 4 Audiences
 5 Three Sympathetic Guests
 6 “Duce! La fotografia!”
 7 A Duce’s Life: 1929–43

4 Fascist Forum
 Oval in the Piazza
 1 View from the Balcony
 2 Foro Italico / Foro dell’Impero Fascista
 3 Competing Axes
 4 Urban Oblivion
 5 Urban Aviator
 6 Vatican Envy

5 Three Balconies
 1 Duce and King
 2 Duce, Pope, and Faithful Flocks
 3 Arengario
 4 Papal Challenge: Jubilees, Exhibitions, Pyrotechnics
 5 Romanità’s Christianity: Mostra Augustea
 6 Via della Conciliazione: Unintended Consequences
 7 Urbi et Orbi
 8 Palazzo Generali

6 Romanità’s Modernity
 Technology and Media
 1 Heldentenor Amplified
 2 Epicenter
 3 Journalistic World View
 4 Media Celebrity

7 Forging Consensus
 Speeches, Salutations, Acclamations
 1 Genres of Balcony Appearances
 2 Data Sets and Regime Initiatives
 3 Public Rallies (Adunate Generali)
 4 Routinization
 5 Call and Response

8 View from the Piazza
 1 Cockpit Frenzy
 2 Eyewitness
 3 Agency of the Piazza
 4 Losing Control
 5 Charisma’s Twilight

Conclusion: Charismatic Urbanism

Postscript: Difficult Heritage / Invisible Presence
Appendix A — Table: Balcony Appearances at Palazzo Venezia
Appendix B — Table: Balcony Appearances at Palazzo Chigi
Appendix C — Excursus: Fascism’s Brain Chemistry
Bibliography
Index
Architectural and urban historians of the modern period; historians of Fascism; sociologists and psychologists; graduate students; university libraries; general readers familiar with the city of Rome and its monuments. Keywords: architecture, city planning, and urbanism in Rome; autocracy, totalitarianism, crowd psychology, sociology, brain chemistry, pyrotechnics, Fascist festivals, Fascist exhibitions, Mostra della Rivoluzione Fascista, Mostra Augustea della Romanità, political religion, romanità, difficult heritage, Piazza Venezia, Palazzo Venezia, Palazzo Chigi, Palazzo delle Assicurazioni Generali, Vittoriano, Via dei Fori Imperiali, Via della Conciliazione, Sala del Mappamondo, Benito Mussolini, Dino Grandi, Vittorio Emanuele III, Margherita Sarfatti, Clara Petacci, Pope Pius XI, Max Weber, Robert Michels.
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