"A testament to masterful scholarship, Furnishing Fascism is a superb exploration of the intersection of furniture history and sociopolitical forces across disciplines. Ignacio G. Galán transcends the confines of Italian and European histories, tracing the journey of furniture and interior design across borders and colonial spaces to reveal their profound influence on cultures worldwide."--Pamela Karimi, Cornell University " Furnishing Fascism is an indispensable work that puts forth an inspired new approach to the mutual constitutions of interwar Italian design and fascist politics. It takes modernist views on interior furnishings as the lens through which to scrutinize Italian nation-building (instead of building elevations or finishings), showing how cinema, advertising, and other consumer arenas were integral to designers' political commitments."--Mia Fuller, author of Moderns Abroad: Architecture, Cities and Italian Imperialism "In this adroit, innovative history of Italian fascism from the inside out, Ignacio G. Galán takes the reader up and down the architectural scales, from furniture to territory and back. Showing how fascism puts homeland and house together by furnishing both with stylized objects and stylized subjects, Galán rewrites the history of dark times, one of interacting hegemonies: bourgeois, cinematic, leisurely, and colonial.
An exemplary contribution to a whole new generation of scholarship on the fascist past that shines a bright light on its unresolved contradictions and their afterlife."--Reinhold Martin, Columbia University "Though [ Furnishing Fascism ] is more of an academic tome than a coffee table page turner, it's full of interesting facts about the development of not only the Italian nation state but also the unexpected role that modernist decor played in shaping the very idea of what it meant to be Italian."-- Dwell Magazine.