Review: The Battle for Modernism: Quadrante and the Politicization of Architectural Discourse in Fascist Italy by David Rifkind

David Rifkind’s masterful new book is a welcome addition to Italian fascist studies as well as architectural history. It is refreshing to have an in-depth study of one of the formative institutions of Italian modernism: the journal Quadrante, which transformed the practice of architecture in fascist Italy by helping to establish coherence to the modern architecture movement during this time. As we learn, Quadrante, more than any other journal, was the most devoted to developing a unified theory of “architecture of the state,” specifically rationalism, to promote its fascist political agenda. The journal was the most ideologically committed publication of the interwar period. That this even happened is striking given that the...