The idea that morally, mentally, and physically superior 'new men' might replace the currently existing mankind has periodically seized the imagination of intellectuals, leaders, and reformers throughout history. This volume offers a multidisciplinary investigation into how the 'new man' was made in Russia and the early Soviet Union in the first third of the 20th century. The traditional narrative of the Soviet 'new man' as a creature forged by propaganda is challenged by the strikingly new and varied case studies presented here. The book focuses on the interplay between the rapidly developing experimental life sciences, such as biology, medicine, and psychology, and countless cultural products, ranging from film and fiction, dolls and museum exhibits to pedagogical projects, sculptures, and exemplary agricultural fairs. With contributions from scholars based in the United States, Canada, the UK, Germany and Russia, the picture that emerges is emphatically more complex, contradictory, and suggestive of strong parallels with other 'new man' visions in Europe and elsewhere. In contrast to previous interpretations that focused largely on the apparent disconnect between utopian 'new man' rhetoric and the harsh realities of everyday life in the Soviet Union, this volume brings to light the surprising historical trajectories of 'new man' visions, their often obscure origins, acclaimed and forgotten champions, unexpected and complicated results, and mutual interrelations. In short, the volume is a timely examination of a recurring theme in modern history, when dramatic advancements in science and technology conjoin with anxieties about the future to fuel dreams of a new and improved mankind.

The creation of Soviet culture in the 1920s and the 1930s was the most radical of modernist projects, both in aesthetic and in political terms. Modernism and the Making of the New Man explores the architecture of this period as the nexus between aesthetics and politics. The design of the material environment, according to the author, was the social effort that most clearly articulated the dynamic of the socialist project as a negotiation between utopia and reality, the will for progress and the will for tyranny. It was a comprehensive effort that brought together professional architects and statisticians, theatre directors, managers, housewives, pilots, construction workers... What they had in common was the enthusiasm for defining the “new man”, the ideal citizen of the radiant future, and the settings in which he or she lives.

In Making a New Man John Dugan investigates how Cicero (106-43 BCE) uses his major treatises on rhetorical theory (De oratore, Brutus, and Orator) in order to construct himself as a new entity within Roman cultural life: a leader who based his authority upon intellectual, oratorical, and literary accomplishments instead of the traditional avenues for prestige such as a distinguished familial pedigree or political or military feats. Eschewing conventional Roman notions of manliness, Cicero constructed a distinctly aesthetized identity that flirts with the questionable domains of the theatre and the feminine, and thus fashioned himself as a "new man."

What though if love itself doth fail, Thy fragrance strewed in vain ; What though if bad o’er good prevail, And vice o’er virtue reign― Change not thy nature, gentle bloom, Thou violet, sweet and pure, But ever pour thy sweet perfume Unasked, unstinted, sure ! ―Swami Vivekananda O’re hill and dale and mountain range, In temple, church, and mosque, In Vedas, Bible, Al Koran I had searched for Thee in vain. Like a child in the wildest forest lost I have cried and cried alone, ‘Where art Thou gone, my God, my love?’ The echo answered, ‘gone’. ―Swami Vivekananda ‘Man-Making was his own task. But he was born a lover, and the queen of his adoration was his Motherland. Like some delicately poised bell, thrilled and vibrated by every sound that falls upon it, Swamiji’s heart vibrated for anything that concerned his Motherland. In fact, his inner being got merged with the soul of India.India was his Mother. None was ever so possessed by the vision of the greatness of India.’ ―Sister Nivedita ‘So long millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every man a traitor who, having been educated at their expenses, pays not the least heed to them!’ ―Swami Vivekananda ‘The soil of India is my highest heaven, the good of India is my good’ ―Swami Vivekananda.