The City as the Enemy? Anti-urbanism in Art and Politics

Anti-urbanism, in terms of ideology or aesthetics, emerged in the nineteenth century against the backdrop of industrialization and urbanization. It was rooted in the Romanticist movement: the city, construed as the embodiment of modernity, was viewed as antithetical to Romantic ideals of the nation and of nature. This essay sheds light on the meaning of anti-urbanism, its role in our understanding of cities and urbanity, and how it has come to figure prominently in art and politics. It concentrates on the historical and contemporary experiences of Germany and the United States. In politics, anti-urbanism came to the fore with the rise of fascism, and it is echoed in present-day, far-right populism, even if it never acquired ideological coherence. Fascism brought aesthetics into politics in unprecedented manner. It transformed politics into an aesthetic experience, where spectacle and emotional appeal prevailed over rational discourse, in ways reminiscent of the Romantic notion of “sensibility.” Drawing on Yi-Fu Tuan’s distinction between “cosmos” and “hearth,” the article underlines the enduring importance of Romanticism and Modernism as ways of seeing. It concludes with a comparison of anti-urbanism in fascist and far-right ideologies.