Ezra Pound's Fascist Propaganda, 1935-45

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xviii

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2. Pound’s Fascist Conversion

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

      PDF

   2. Introduction

      • Matthew Feldman

      Pages 2-8

   3. Approaching Pound’s Fascism: Development of an Ideologue

      • Matthew Feldman

      Pages 9-33

   4. Unpaid Propaganda ‘for a Decent Europe’, 1935–40

      • Matthew Feldman

      Pages 34-63

3. Pound at War

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 64-64

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   2. Reappraising the ‘Pound Case’, 1940–45

      • Matthew Feldman

      Pages 65-79

   3. Pound’s Radio Propaganda: Revisiting the Critical Literature, 1940–43

      • Matthew Feldman

      Pages 80-113

   4. Pound’s Propaganda Themes and Strategies, 1940–43

      • Matthew Feldman

      Pages 114-142

   5. Conclusion: The Salò Republic, 1943–45

      • Matthew Feldman

      Pages 143-165

4. Back Matter

   Pages 166-174

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Ezra Pound was an influential propagandist for British, Italian and ultimately German fascist movements. Using long-neglected manuscripts and cutting-edge approaches to fascism as a 'political religion', Feldman argues that Pound's case offers a revealing case study of a modernist author turned propagator of the 'fascist faith'.

• argue
• English literature
• Europe
• fascism
• German
• Italy
• knowledge
• literature
• manuscript
• manuscripts
• propaganda
• religion

“It is an invaluable contribution to Pound scholarship, and one that deserves a wide readership … . Ezra Pound’s Fascist Propaganda, 1935-45 is a most valuable and welcome study. … Ezra Pound’s Fascist Propaganda, 1935-45 goes a considerable way towards filling us in on the content and nature of Pound’s propaganda work for the BUF, Radio Rome, and the Salò Republic.” (Christos Hadjiyiannis, Journal of Modern Literature, Vol. 39 (1), Fall, 2015)

"In a book based on a wide range of archival and published English-language . . . sources . . . the heart of Feldman's case lies in the Second World War and in Pound's numerous broadcasts, whether in his own name or under an array of pseudonyms, including Piero Mazda, Marco Veneziano and Mr Dooley. Here Feldman has unearthed useful information." - Times Higher Education

"With great clarity and erudition, Matthew Feldman changes how Pound must henceforth be read. On the basis of thousands of previously unused sources, not only does the extent of Pound's fascist commitment become unequivocally clear but the proximity of his political views to his poetry becomes equally undeniable. This is a major work of new historicist literary scholarship which deserves a wide readership across the humanities." - Dan Stone, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK

"For the first time we learn from Matthew Feldman's lively study how Pound supported himself during the war years. Far from an eccentric voice, Pound was a major English-language propagandist for the regime. Using hitherto untapped MI5 and FBI files, Feldman shows that Pound's radio speeches ran into thousands of items, from speeches to squibs. We have taken Pound's remark that the propaganda he produced was his own as meaning he did not follow any Fascist 'party line.' We could imagine that Pound's fascism was as heterodox as his economics. In fact Pound's propaganda responded directly and consciously to Fascist politics in Italy, following closely imperatives he discussed with members of the government. This book changes forever how we read Pound by bringing thousands of new documents into Pound's total body of work." - Professor Alec Marsh, Muhlenberg College, USA

• Teesside University, UK

  Matthew Feldman

Matthew Feldman is a reader in contemporary history and co-director of the Centre for Fascist, Anti-fascist and Post-fascist Studies at Teeside University. He has held research fellowships at the universities of Northampton, Birmingham, Oxford and Bergen, Norway, and has written widely on fascism and terrorism as well as on archival approaches to modernism, especially the work of Samuel Beckett.

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