Flying and the pilot were significant metaphors of fascism's mythical modernity. Fernando Esposito traces the changing meanings of these highly charged symbols from the air show in Brescia, to the sky above the trenches of the First World War to the violent ideological clashes of the interwar period.

Fernando Esposito is Lecturer at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Germany.

1. Aviation, Fascism, And The Longing For Order 2. Theoretical And Methodological Approach 3. Definition Of The Central Analytical Categories 4. Structure Of The Work PART I: LONGING FOR ORDER 1. Idea Non Vincit. Warburg And The Crisis Of Liberal Modernity 2. Icarus Rising. D'Annunzio, The Flying Artificer Of Myth 3. Longing For Order - Summary PART II: FRACTURED ORDER 1. Don Quixote Of The Air 2. Flying Swords And Mechanized Warfare 3. Transitional Heroes And The Order Of The Gemeinschaft 4. Fractured Order - Summary PART III: ETERNAL ORDER 1. Volare! The Fascist Take-Off Towards Eternal Order 2. Fascism And Mythical Modernity