Written during the rule of National Socialism in Germany and the rise of the so-called Racial Laws in Fascist Italy, The Myth of the Blood offers a unique window into the historical origins of the racialist thought that so fatefully characterized an era. More than a study of history, however, The Myth of the Blood is a magisterial overview of the problem of human race itself, by one of the great thinkers of the past century, the traditionalist philosopher Julius Evola. This book traces the development of the concept of race from antiquity to contemporary times, proceeding through historical, mythical, scientific, and philosophical perspectives, keenly dissecting the thought of the foremost theoreticians in the field of race studies. The result is an unmatched analysis of a notoriously difficult issue, undertaken with an admirable mixture of fearlessness, fairness, and erudition. In a day of growing questions, controversies, and doubts surrounding the nature and meaning of human race, Evola's reflections are as timely now as they were on the day of their publication.

Linear and progressive views of history have dominated the popular imagination for the past seventy years in a worldview wedded to the inexorable rise of globalisation and GDP-growth at any cost. However, the end of the Cold War failed to produce the end of history as hoped, a fact brought home to many by Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Material wealth and 'Progress’ in the name of ‘social justice’ have not made people happier or more united but quite the opposite. Anxiety, depression, fearfulness, sadness, loneliness and anger have all massively increased since 1970 with the male suicide rate at an all-time high. Western society seems to be divided against itself across every line conceivable: left versus right, women versus men, ‘non-whites’ versus ‘whites’, globalists versus populists, ‘the elites’ versus ‘the people’, people who think that men can be women and vice versa versus those who insist that they cannot, and so on. Seventy-three percent of Americans believe their country is on ‘the wrong track’, with similar views reflected in Britain and across Europe. The Prophets of Doom explores eleven thinkers who not only dared to contradict the dominant linear and progressive view of history, but also predicted many of the political and social maladies through which we are living.

In this book, Julius Evola analyzes the Fascist movement of Italy, which he himself had experienced first-hand, often as a vocal critic, throughout its entire history from 1922 until 1945. Discussing - and dismissing - the misuse of the term 'fascism' that has gained widespread acceptance, Evola asks readers not to allow the fact of Italy's defeat in the Second World War to distract us from making an objective analysis of the ideology of Fascism itself, since the defeat was the result of contingent circumstances and the personalities of those who led it, rather than flaws that were inherent in Fascism as an idea. Evola praises those aspects of Fascism which he believes to have been in accordance with the best traditions of European governance, in particular the Classical Roman tradition, while he remains critical of those aspects which ran contrary to this ideal, such as its socialist, proletarian and totalitarian tendencies, as well as what he saw as its petty moralism. Evola also distinguishes between the Fascism of the 'Twenty Years' between 1922 and Mussolini's overthrow in 1943, and the 'Second Fascism' of the Italian Social Republic, which he considered as much more problematic. He likewise criticizes the Fascist racial doctrine for being based on false principles. Frequently quoting Mussolini's own words, Evola presents the core of the Fascist ideal, arguing that, for all its flaws, it remains superior to the political system which has since arisen to replace it. Julius Evola (1898-1974) was Italy's foremost traditionalist philosopher, as well as a metaphysician, social thinker and activist. Evola was an authority on the world's esoteric traditions and one of the greatest critics of modernity. He wrote extensively on the ancient civilizations of both East and West and the world of Tradition, and was also a critic of the political and spiritual movements of his own time from a traditional perspective.

In this book Evola set out his own racial doctrine on the premise of the traditional tripartition of the human being into body, soul, spirit. In the first part, race is presented as a revolutionary idea. The three degrees of race are defined in the second part and elaborated upon in the third part. The fourth part begins with a clear definition of the term "Aryan" and ends with considerations on the racial issue from the point of view of law. Finally, the problem of racial rectification is discussed thoroughly.

2023 PROSE Award in European History “An invaluable historical example of the creation of a scientific conception of race that is unlikely to disappear anytime soon.” —Washington Post “Reveals how prestigious natural scientists once sought physical explanations, in vain, for a social identity that continues to carry enormous significance to this day.” —Nell Irvin Painter, author of The History of White People “A fascinating, if disturbing, window onto the origins of racism.” —Publishers Weekly “To read [these essays] is to witness European intellectuals, in the age of the Atlantic slave trade, struggling, one after another, to justify atrocity.” —Jill Lepore, author of These Truths: A History of the United States In 1739 Bordeaux’s Royal Academy of Sciences announced a contest for the best essay on the sources of “blackness.” What is the physical cause of blackness and African hair, and what is the cause of Black degeneration, the contest announcement asked. Sixteen essays, written in French and Latin, were ultimately dispatched from all over Europe. Documented on each page are European ideas about who is Black and why. Looming behind these essays is the fact that some four million Africans had been kidnapped and shipped across the Atlantic by the time the contest was announced. The essays themselves represent a broad range of opinions, which nonetheless circulate around a common theme: the search for a scientific understanding of the new concept of race. More important, they provide an indispensable record of the Enlightenment-era thinking that normalized the sale and enslavement of Black human beings. These never previously published documents survived the centuries tucked away in Bordeaux’s municipal library. Translated into English and accompanied by a detailed introduction and headnotes written by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Andrew Curran, each essay included in this volume lays bare the origins of anti-Black racism and colorism in the West.

But he also finds the first traces of modern ideas of race and the protoscences of late medieval cabalism and hermeticism. Following that trail forward, he describes the establishment of modern scientific and philosophical notions of race in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and shows how those notions became popular and pervasive, even among those who claim to be nonracist.

Companion volume to Fascism viewed from the Right.