The Myth of the New Man in Italian Fascist Ideology

Abstract

This article addresses the key concept of the New Man within Fascist ideology, often considered as means and end of the Fascist revolution by the Fascists. Usually dismissed as an empty slogan by historians, it is argued in the following pages that the myth of the New Man is essential for a better understanding of the regime’s totalitarian and revolutionary aspirations along with its quest of creating an alternative modernity and a post-liberal and post-socialist type of civilisation based on the primacy of the collectivity - a realm where Italians could realise their full potential as human beings.