Fascism, Liberalism and Europeanism in the Political Thought of Bertrand de Jouvenel and Alfred Fabre-Luce

Author

Knegt, Daniel

Year

2017

Publisher

Amsterdam University Press

Type

BOOK

Description

Despite the recent rise in studies that approach fascism as a transnational phenomenon, the links between fascism and internationalist intellectual currents have only received scant attention. This book explores the political thought of Bertrand de Jouvenel and Alfred Fabre-Luce, two French intellectuals, journalists and political writers who, from 1930 to the mid-1950s, moved between liberalism, fascism and Europeanism. Daniel Knegt argues that their longing for a united Europe was the driving force behind this ideological transformation. While defeat and occupation led both intellectuals to fascination and intellectual collaboration with the German-led European order, the post-war period saw them affiliate with the extreme right and contribute to its intellectual renewal. Paradoxically at the same time, Jouvenel reinvented himself as a leading neoliberal theorist and founding member of the Mont Pèlerin Society. Provocative and innovative, this study traces the intellectual links between fascism, Europeanism and early neoliberalism.