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This essay cross-examines both the correlation and the disjunction between art philosophy and political reason in the thinking of the French Jewish art philosopher, Kant specialist and socialist politician Victor Basch (1863–1944). Two interwoven lines of questioning will be in play. One considers the extent to which Basch's theory of beauty, which was primarily grounded in a psychological theory ofEinfühlung, was a corollary to his political ideas and practices. The other line of inquiry raises questions about how Basch's political position, namely his anti-facist defending of republican values, became influenced by his work on aesthetics. By answering both questions, this article challenges the traditional historiography of interwar aesthetics. The esaay shows how conceptual debates of aesthetics were not just sterile theoretical products, but to a large extent offered an apparatus to diagnose and orientate a rapidly changing world. Therefore this essay develops a reflection about the gaze needed to take in the complex historical situations from which aesthetic reflections grew, and which in turn they addressed.

On an old picture, taken in Budapest in the early 1930s, a little girl is leaning on the wall around the Halaszbastya or Fisherman's Bastion. From this mock fortification, built for the Hungarian Millennium celebrations of 1896, she had a marvellous view of the skyline of the Hungarian capital which was dominated by one building: the parliament (fig. 1). It is quite possible that the little girl was counting the number of white neo-gothic turrets and arches of the parliament that was, just as the fortress on which she was standing, built at the turn of the century, to express the sovereignty of the nation. Maybe she tried to decipher some of the sculptures on the walls of the parliament which represented Hungarian rulers and famous military people.

In the changing world of interwar Europe a longing for stability rose to the surface of social life. Newly developed neighbourhoods and buildings were designed to create the healing community that many people were dreaming of. Various social groups with nationalist, ideological, or religious agendas made this concept of community a cornerstone in their framework and appropriated it to prescribe the relations between architecture and modernity. This book analyses the various ways in which these relations were determined. Most activists/entities encountered the potentialities of modernity, such as technology or mass media, in an accommodating way. In a broad spectrum of actions and proposals - from art exhibitions to séances, photo reports to roof tiles, landscapes to sanitation - these reformists were hoping to create a universe in which their communal dream could become a reality. The 17 contributions to this richly illustrated volume draw the contours of this new world by analysing its foundations and working mechanisms at its heart

By studying the reception and perception of the French Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain, this book argues that European modernist artists and intellectuals sought a primordial finality in Catholicism. The French poet, writer, and surrealist filmmaker Jean Cocteau converted under the influence of Maritain. For the painters Gino Severini, a pioneer of Futurism, and Otto Van Rees, one of the first Dadaists -both converts- Maritain played the role of spiritual counselor. And when the promoter of abstract art Michel Seuphor embraced Catholic faith in the 1930s, he, too, had extensive contact w

In the months and years immediately following the First World War, the many (European) countries that had formed its battleground were confronted with daunting challenges. These challenges varied according to the countries' earlier role and degree of involvement in the war but were without exception enormous. The contributors to this book analyse how this was not only a matter of rebuilding ravaged cities and destroyed infrastructure, but also of repairing people's damaged bodies and upended daily lives, and rethinking and reforming societal, economic and political structures. These processes took place against the backdrop of mass mourning and remembrance, political violence and economic crisis. At the same time, the post-war tabula rasa offered many opportunities for innovation in various areas of society, from social and political reform to architectural design. The wide scope of post-war recovery and revival is reflected in the different sections of this book: rebuild, remember, repair, and reform. It offers insights into post-war revival in Western European countries such as Belgium, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Portugal, Spain, and Italy, as well as into how their efforts were perceived outside of Europe, for instance in Argentina and the United States.