Once Ezra Pound discovered the cultural Nationalist projects of Mussolini's regime, they became crucial to his work. The more he looked, the more he found worthy of his attention. All around him, the regime was finding ways to use Italy's cultural heritage to construct a Fascist modernity. Whether we think of the vast archaeological excavations that revealed more of Rome's ancient history, adaptation of ancient icons to modern purposes, or the modern building projects that borrowed from the architectural elements discovered during these excavations, Italy's past was becoming a more prominent inspiration for its future. Pound's own investment in cultural heritage was similarly forwardlooking, as he sought ways of using the past to create a rich and flexible future. This chapter demonstrates that the Fascist investment in a similar—and similarly modernist—goal helped to inspire Pound's own thinking and making of art.

Such critical works as Tim Redman's Ezra Pound and Italian Fascism, Peter Nicholls's Ezra Pound, Politics, Economics and Writing, Alec Marsh's Money and Modernity: Pound, Williams, and the Spirit of Jefferson, and Leon Surette's Pound in Purgatory: From Economic Radicalism to Anti-Semitism have revealed a number of the important ideological shifts that allowed Pound to become so invested in Mussolini and Fascism. Because these works’ treatment of Pound's increasing economic, political, and racial thinking during the 1930s is so rich and well handled, they may inadvertently give readers the mistaken sense that Pound abandoned cultural interests altogether during this period. Certainly, the mass of his economic writings is sizable, but in the mix of these writings shines a continuing—and perhaps strengthening—interest in the role of culture as a means of fomenting national identity and bolstering political regimes.