The book explores the surprising alignment of some African American intellectuals in the 1930s with fascist ideologies, viewing them as potential avenues for political resistance. Mark Christian Thompson examines the writings and ideas of various authors, revealing how their nuanced responses to European fascism contributed to the emergence of a distinct form of black fascism. This analysis is essential for comprehending the complexities of African American literary culture during the Depression era.
Anti-Music examines the critical, literary, and political responses to African American jazz music in interwar Germany. During this time, jazz was the subject of overt political debate between left-wing and right-wing interests: for the left, jazz marked the death knell of authoritarian Prussian society; for the right, jazz was complicit as an American import threatening the chaos of modernization and mass politics. This conflict was resolved in the early 1930s as the left abandoned jazz in the face of Nazi victory, having come to see the music in collusion with the totalitarian culture industry. Mark Christian Thompson recounts the story of this intellectual trajectory and describes how jazz came to be associated with repressive, virulently racist fascism in Germany. By examining writings by Hermann Hesse, Bertolt Brecht, T.W. Adorno, and Klaus Mann, and archival photographs and images, Thompson brings together debates in German, African American, and jazz studies, and charts a new path for addressing antiblack racism in cultural criticism and theory. Book jacket
