This pioneering book studies the rise, heyday and demise of regionalism from the Belle Aepoque until the Eve of the Second World War. By using a novel comparative perspective it gives a fresh view of the relationship between cultural regionalism, political regionalism and nationalism. Storm further illuminates how during the first decades of the twentieth century the culture of regionalism slowly lost the battle against its main rival: the avant-garde. Regional identities, like national identities, were created and sometimes even invented; and this was equally the case in France, Germany and Spain. Artists, architects and international exhibitions played a highly influential role in this process. During the 1890s painters began to apply the regionalist ideology by producing images of a presumably harmonious and authentic rural society. Shortly afterwards they were followed by architects, who constructed villas and garden cities inspired by vernacular cottages. Later on regionalism was used at international exhibitions by widely differing regimes, such as the Primo de Rivera dictatorship in Spain, the Popular Front government in France, and the Hitler-regime in Germany. They all appropriated, and in some cases perverted, the regionalist message showing that strong regional identities would ultimately reinforce national unity. This book offers new perspectives to specialists of regionalism and nationalism, but will also be of interest to students of the cultural history of France, Germany and Spain and to specialists from the fields of politics, ethnology, art history, cultural studies and architectural history.
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