Totalitarian art in the Soviet Union, the Third Reich, fascist Italy and the people's republic of China

A comparative study of the official art of Mao's China, Stalin's Russia, Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy. The author shows how totalitarian art has its roots in the avant- garde and modernist movements of the early years of the 20th century, which sought to create entirely new artistic forms of mass appeal. These forms were quickly expropriated by dictatorial regimes.