Mussolini and Italian Fascism Pili, Jacopo
Journal of Contemporary History,
04/2023, Letnik:
58, Številka:
2
Book Review, Journal Article
Recenzirano
The rising tide of populist politics in the and early 2020s has brought the word 'fascism' back to the centre of international political and cultural debate. Historians such as Ruth Ben Ghiat and ...Federico Finchelstein have addressed the connections and similarities between today's 'strongmen' and the autocrats ruling much of Europe between 1922 and 1945. On the subject of Italian fascism, in addition to the political climate, the centenary of the 1922 March on Rome has stimulated further debate on the subject. Whether it was indeed a totalitarian regime remains the fundamental, under- lying question. In 2018, Guido Melis published La macchina imperfetta. Immagine e realti dello statofascista (Bologna: Il Mulino, 2018) arguing that the effect of fascistiza- tion on the Italian state was limited, for Italian institutions during the ventennio showed continuity with the most authoritarian elements of liberal Italy's tradition, and servile conformism was far more widespread than sincere adherence to the fascist ideological project, especially in bureaucracy. Like earlier works such as Paul Corner's analysis of consensus in fascist Italy, Melis' book can be seen as an answer to the lecent Italian his- toriography on fascism's focus on fascist ideology, particularly its totalitarian discourse. Giulia Albanese underlined that emphasizing ideology might lead to overlooking how these translated into practice and that Melis' study on Italian institutions suggests that, after all, there was no fascist totalitarianism. The integration of 'theory' and 'practice' in Mussolini's totalitarian efforts is the focus of Rethinking the History of Italian Fascism (London: Routledge, 2022), edited by Albanese and containing contributions from many of the main Italian historians of fascism. In this case, the fascist experience emerges as a watershed moment with liberal Italy in fields such as the use of political violence, consensus creation via welfare measures or flexible propaganda, mass mobilization-based colonial policy, the redefinition of citizenship and even in certain areas of scientific research. Rethinking Fascism also suggests that the Italian fascist experience should not be studied in a vacuum. Albanese's chapter in particular focuses on the diffusion of Italian fascist ideas to other European countries. Indeed, the last decade has seen a steady expansion of transnational approaches to the history of fascism. Although transnational history transcends Italian fascism, Mussolini's attempt to fascistize Europe or indeed the rest of the world is one of its main focuses. One important example is Fascism without
This book is freely available in digital formats thanks to a generous grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Anglophobia in Fascist Italy traces the origins and development of anti-British ...sentiment in Fascist Italy, as Britain turned from being an ally in the First World War to an enemy in the Second. The book demonstrates that Fascist ideologues framed Britain as a stagnant and decaying country and the polar opposite of Fascism's new civilization, to the point that the regime's assessment of British political resolve and military might were distorted by ideological bias. The book offers a thorough analysis of diplomatic, military and journalistic sources and demonstrates that anti-British tropes had permeated Italy to a greater degree than was previously believed.
An analysis of the reports of the Italian military attachés in London, Paris, and Berlin during the 1930s suggests that these officers’ perception of the countries they observed was increasingly ...influenced by the totalitarian evolution of the regime. While traditional interpretation of the relationship between the Italian Army and the regime is that the alliance between the two granted meaningful autonomy to the former, this article suggests that the Italian military had absorbed a worldview seeing democracy as weak and decadent and authoritarianism as the way ahead, and perceived the world according to strong national and racial stereotypes.
This book is freely available in digital formats thanks to a generous grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Anglophobia in Fascist Italy traces the origins and development of anti-British ...sentiment in Fascist Italy, as Britain turned from being an ally in the First World War to an enemy in the Second. The book demonstrates that Fascist ideologues framed Britain as a stagnant and decaying country and the polar opposite of Fascism's new civilization, to the point that the regime's assessment of British political resolve and military might were distorted by ideological bias. The book offers a thorough analysis of diplomatic, military and journalistic sources and demonstrates that anti-British tropes had permeated Italy to a greater degree than was previously believed.
Mussolini’s attempt to transform Italians was not a spectacular success. The catastrophic defeat in the war and the quick fall of the regime in 1943 demonstrated that the experiment to create a ...‘Fascist New Man’ had failed. However, the failure to create a nation of warrior supermen does not mean that the regime did not have a long-lasting impact on Italian society, shaping the character of the Italian people in other ways. The questions of how much consensus the regime enjoyed among Italians and to what extent the Italian people had been ‘Fascistised’ have been the subject of
While renzo de felice argued that Mussolini was convinced the corporative experiment was a long-term one, he also maintained that the Duce was sincerely convinced his new system was the way forward ...in order to avoid the contradictions of liberalism and Communism.² Corporatism was, in theory, a system in which the market and private enterprises were subject to political control and the Fascist regime regulated labour conflicts, serving the greater interests of the nation.³ An analysis of Fascist public discourse concerning Britain suggests that, even when the fulfilment of the corporate system was still far in the future,
In March 1922, more than half a year before the March on Rome that would start twenty years of Fascist rule in Italy, Margherita Sarfatti published an article about Rudyard Kipling in the Fascist ...intellectual magazine Gerarchia. Sarfatti was born to a Jewish family in Venice in 1880. Her ancestry would prompt her to leave Italy in 1938, as the Fascist regime promulgated anti-Semitic legislation. She was to return to Italy only in 1947, after the Second World War and the end of Fascism. All this was still far in the future in 1922. Sarfatti was a writer, art critic
The landing in sicily of a powerful Anglo-American invasion force in July 1943 convinced the Italian elites that a people with no remaining will or means to fight had to sue for peace. Mussolini had ...reached the same conclusions but had no plans nor energy left to change the course of events. On 19 July he met Hitler at Feltre, but obtained nothing. On the same day, Rome was bombed for the first time.¹ On 25 July, Mussolini was arrested, and Badoglio, moving with the approval of the King, seized power and dissolved the Fascist Party. He promptly promised
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