Controversy has long surrounded the complex relationship between King Victor Emmanuel III and the dictator Benito Mussolini in Fascist Italy. It is clear that the king played decisive roles in ...bringing Mussolini to power in 1922 and in removing him in 1943. In between, the two coexisted as Italy became a 'dyarchy', with two foci of power. The presence of the monarchy at once checked Fascist radicalism and persuaded many conservatives to adhere to the regime. Thanks especially to the monarchy, the innovative thrust of Fascism was channelled in certain delimited directions, toward a statist economy, for example. Still, the relationship between the crown and Mussolini was often rocky, though the king's reluctance did not prevent alliance with Nazi Germany, anti-Semitism, and war. Tensions were largely papered over by rhetoric and myth-making, as if the elements of Fascism fit together neatly. Despite his opposition to certain particulars, Victor Emmanuel identified with the overall Fascist project to some extent, and he worried that outright opposition to the regime would jeopardize the monarchy. But as the Second World War went badly for Italy, the king finally deposed Mussolini. Nevertheless, Italy soon voted to eliminate the monarchy, discredited by its association with fascism.
Tens of thousands of Italian civilians perished in the Allied bombing raids of World War II. More of them died after the Armistice of September 1943 than before, when the air attacks were intended to ...induce Italy’s surrender. Allied Air Attacks and Civilian Harm in Italy, 1940–1945 addresses this seeming paradox, by examining the views of Allied political and military leaders, Allied air crews, and Italians on the ground. It tells the stories of a little-known diplomat (Myron Charles Taylor), military strategist (Solly Zuckerman), resistance fighter (Aldo Quaranta), and peace activist (Vera Brittain) – architects and opponents of the bombing strategies. It describes the fate of ordinary civilians, drawing on a wealth of local and digital archival sources, memoir accounts, novels, and films, including Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 and John Huston’s The Battle of San Pietro. The book will be of interest to readers concerned about the ethical, legal, and human dimensions of bombing and its effects on civilians, to students of military strategy and Italian history, and to World War II buffs. They will benefit from a people-focused history that draws on a range of eclectic and rarely used sources in English and Italian.
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.
Abstract
This article discusses the collaboration between Benito Mussolini and Giovacchino Forzano in the writing of three historical dramas, focusing on the third text of their collaboration, ...Cesare, which dates to 1939. Placing this partnership within the context of Fascism's broader theatrical programming, the essay discusses the play as a model of Fascist theater, for its imparting of Fascist ideological tenets, propagandistic messages, and pedagogical aims. It focuses in particular on the ways in which the play uses the analogy between ancient Rome and Fascist Italy, and between Julius Caesar and Mussolini, embodying fascism's poetics of history, contributing to the anthropological revolution, and overall demonstrating the 'new fascist man' through the character of Caesar/Mussolini.
Dr. Hu Shih (1891–1962) was one of China’s top scholars and diplomats and served as the Republic of China’s ambassador to the United States during World War II. As early as 1941, Hu Shih warned of ...the fundamental ideological conflict between dictatorial totalitarianism and democratic systems, a view that later became the foundation of the Cold War narrative. In the 1950s, after Mao’s authoritarian regime was established, Hu Shih started to analyze the development and nature of Communism, delivering a series of lectures and addresses to reveal what he called Stalin’s “grand strategy” for facilitating the International Communist Movement. For decades—and today to a certain extent—Hu Shih’s political writings were considered sensitive and even dangerous. As a strident critic of the Chinese Communist Party’s oligarchical practices, he was targeted by the CCP in a concerted national campaign to smear his reputation, cast aspersions on his writings, and generally destroy any possible influence he might have in China. This volume brings together a collection of Hu Shih’s most important, mostly unpublished, English-language speeches, interviews, and commentaries on international politics, China-U.S. relations, and the International Communist Movement. Taken together, these works provide an insider’s perspective on Sino-American relations and the development of the International Communist Movement over the course of the 20th century.
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.
This article aims to trace the influence of Italian cultural diplomacy and its, impact in Estonia starting from the de jure recognition in 1921 to the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact in 1939, ...the prelude to the Soviet invasion of the Baltic States of June 1940. The cultural relations between Italy and Estonia could be divided into two time periods: the first one, from 1921 to 1931, when Italy tried to establish the foundations of its cultural influence in Estonia; the second one, from 1932 to 1939. In the latter period, the growth of Italian diplomatic influence abroad corresponded to a more precise propaganda project, outlined not only by the Italian diplomatic mission in Tallinn, but also by three key episodes: the Volta Conference in Rome, the establishment of C.A.U.R (Comitati d'Azione per l'Universalità di Roma/Action Committees for the Universality of Rome) in 1932 and 1933 respectively, and the foundation of the Ministry of Popular Culture in 1937.
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