Author Description

Though more than fifteen centuries have passed since the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, the Eternal City remains a durable image of authority, allegiance, and ancient splendor. This richly illustrated volume with an essay by Wolfsonian curator Silvia Barisione examines five architectural visions that show the persistence of Rome in Italian national consciousness during the interwar years, when the city served as an instrument of state mobilization and the foremost source for efforts to reclaim Italy's imperial past. Such projects as the redevelopment of the Augustean zone, the Foro Mussolini physical education complex, and the Italian pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair, demonstrate how the myth of the Eternal City endured through the rise and collapse of the Fascist regime.