 Cover of the 1963 Noontide issue | |
| Author | Francis Parker Yockey |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | Philosophy of history Political philosophy |
| Published | Westropa Press (1948) Noontide Press (1963) |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 405 |
| OCLC | 1430186327 |
| 901.94 | |
| LC Class | CB425 .Y6 1948 |
Imperium: The Philosophy of History and Politics is a 1948 book byFrancis Parker Yockey, using the pen name Ulick Varange, that argues for apan-Europeanfascistempire.[1][2] It was originally published in the United Kingdom in 1948 by Westropa Press. Later that year, the book's rights were bought by American antisemiteWillis Carto, who republished the book in several editions with hisNoontide Press starting in 1963. The book sold over 20,000 copies in the United States, and has been translated into several languages.
Imperium presents anantisemitic theory of history, asserts that theHolocaust was a hoax, and is dedicated to "the hero of theSecond World War", meant to describeAdolf Hitler. The book was influential on the far-right and on antisemitic thought.
The book is dedicated to "the hero of theSecond World War", meant to describeAdolf Hitler.[3] Following Spengler, Yockey identified eight "high cultures" in world history, which he saw as spiritualsuperorganisms which impress humans into their service.[4] He argued that these cultures have their own souls which determine their religious expression, science, art forms, politics and morality through succeeding life phases of birth, growth, maturity, fulfillment of destiny, and death.[5][6] He described races as "spirituo-biological" entities, raw material for cultural expression and history, but criticized strictlybiological racial theories as crude.[7][5][8]
Yockey wrote that the fulfillment of the Western high culture was threatened by "cultural pathology", including what he claimed were interrelated sicknesses of "culture-parasitism", "culture-retardation" and "culture-distortion".[9] He alleged that Jews were most harmful to the West because he saw them as aggravating its organic "culture-crisis", which he associated with the rise of materialism and rationalism since 1750.[10][3][11] He wrote that America was more susceptible to "culture-distortion" than any other Western nation because, he argued, America as a colonial offshoot of Western culture was founded on an ideology of rationalism and materialism, lacking the spiritual depth of Europe.[12]
Imperium presents anantisemitic theory of history,[3][8] believing that each life phase of high culture has its unique "Spirit of the Age", Yockey consideredfascism andNazism to be expressions of this spirit in the new epoch.[4][8] According to him, Hitler set the West toward a proper fulfillment of its destiny as a unified empire, while in order to stop it America sided with Russia, which Yockey saw as distinct from the Western culture. Yockey alleged that the postwarNuremberg trials were "show trials" directed by these "extra-European forces". Hedenied the Holocaust (although he reportedly praised it in private),[8][13] and claimed that photographic evidence of the Nazis'gas chambers was faked.[3][14]
Despite the influential status of the book, Yockey was a mysterious figure and very little is known about his life.[15] Yockey adopted the ideas of German philosopher of historyOswald Spengler inImperium, although Yockey's explicit antisemitism differentiated him from Spengler.[8] Spengler'sThe Decline of the West was the most important single source.[16] Yockey's views on the role of the state drew from thefriend–enemy thesis of Nazi political theoristCarl Schmitt (whom Yockey has been accused of plagiarizing).[17][18] Yockey heavily drew on thegreat man theory ofThomas Carlyle, seeing the creative ability of heroic individuals as a vehicle for progress.[6] The book allegedly was written in six months beginning in 1947.[19]
Yockey wroteImperium at an inn inBrittas Bay,Ireland.[3] The book spanned 600 pages in two volumes.[20] In Yockey's pseudonym, Ulick Varange,Ulick was meant to be an Irish name, andVarange was a reference toNorsemen.[21] Yockey invited the British fascistOswald Mosley to publishImperium in his name, but Mosley refused.[22] Publication was financed by the Mosleyites Guy Chesham,Peter Huxley-Blythe and Yockey's mistress Baroness Alice von Pflugl.[23][8] A thousand copies of the first volume, and 200 copies of the second volume, were printed in London by Westropa Press.[19][24]
The American far-right activist and antisemiteWillis Carto, a Yockey supporter,[15] acquired the rights toImperium from Westropa in 1948.[25][1] The 1963Noontide Press edition, published after Yockey's suicide in jail in 1960, included an introduction by Carto.[1][15] Carto republishedImperium as a paperback with Noontide in 1969, and they published it in a third edition in 1991.[15] The book sold well in the United States, at over 20,000 copies from the Noontide editions.[15] It has been translated into several languages, including Spanish and German.[15]
Imperium has been called one of the most influential antisemitic books since Hitler'sMein Kampf,[1][14] and a "neo-Mein Kampf for neo-Nazis".[26] It is known for being extremely difficult to read.[27][19] WritersJohn George andLaird Wilcox wrote that "much of the book's enduring reputation lies in its incomprehensibility [...] In the tiny community of neo-Nazism, Imperium is the 'bible' few people have thoroughly read and almost nobody understands", though "many have tried".[27][28] They further wrote that it was distinguished by a partial "flight of ideas" aspect, which they argued "suggests instability and disorganization".[19]
It has influenced various far-right activists worldwide, including supporters of a "Eurasian" racial imperium in Europe and Russia.[13] It influenced the American neo-Nazi occultistJames H. Madole, the racialOdinistElse Christensen, the fascistChristian Bouchet and the British neo-NaziDavid Myatt.[29] The Italianfar-right ideologueJulius Evola praised it.[30] But according to academicJeffrey Kaplan, some others on the far right consideredImperium the "impenetrable ramblings of a madman".[31]
The book's ideology was adopted by Willis Carto for theNational Youth Alliance and some members of groups such as theLiberty Lobby (founded by Carto) and theAmerican Independent Party.[32] Liberty Lobby and its spinoffs promotedImperium as theMein Kampf of postwar Nazism.[20] The book was also sold for several years through the catalog ofDavid Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard.[33]
In his 2011 book of correspondences with American conductorDavid Woodard, Swiss writerChristian Kracht recommended Yockey'sImperium.[34] The following year, Kracht published his bestselling novelImperium.
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