Mussolini and Italian Fascism

by Finaldi, Giuseppe

• ISBN13: 9781405812535
• ISBN10: 1405812532
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-07-09
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Fascism was one of the defining experiences of the European 20th Century. Within it many of the economic, political, social and cultural contradictions that had been brewing in the unprecedented transformation that European society underwent in the 19th and early 20th century came to a head. Mussolini, the man who most fashioned Italian Fascism, dramatically expressed the unease and the hopes of his age. To what extent can we compare Mussolini's Italy to Hitler's Germany or Stalin's Russia? What legacy has the experience of Fascism left behind in Italy and in Europe? These and many more important questions are explored in Finaldi's introduction to one of the most important movements of the European 20th Century.

Author Biography

Giuseppe Finaldi is a lecturer in History at the University of Western Australia

Table of Contents

Author's acknowledgements	p. x
Publisher's acknowledgements	p. xi
Chronology	p. xii
Who's who	p. xvii
Glossary	p. xx
Background	p. 1
Introduction	p. 3
Perspectives	p. 6
Perspectives on modern Italian history	p. 6
Perspectives on the study of Italian Fascism	p. 9
Mussolini and Italian Fascism	p. 17
The Origins of Italian Fascism, 1870-1917	p. 19
Liberal Italy and its discontents	p. 19
Interventionism	p. 25
The Great War and its aftermath	p. 29
Fascism as Movement, 1917-21	p. 33
The birth of the Fascist movement	p. 33
The biennio rosso and fascism's reaction	p. 36
The Road to Dictatorship, 1921-6	p. 42
The march on Rome: myth and reality	p. 42
The 'bivouac' that might have been: the Duce as prime minister, 1922-4	p. 46
The Matteotti crisis	p. 51
Establishing the Regime	p. 53
The Fascist Regime 1926-36	p. 56
The structure of the Fascist Regime	p. 56
Fascism and religion	p. 61
Making Italians Fascists?	p. 65
The Ethiopian War	p. 77
Mussolini and Hitler, 1936-8	p. 85
The deal with Nazism	p. 85
The apotheosis of the dictatorship	p. 93
Munich: Mussolini's last peace	p. 98
The Second World war and the end of Fascism, 1938-45	p. 102
Understanding Italy's performance in the Second World War	p. 102
The collapse of Fascism	p. 105
The death of a nation: Italy between 1943 and 1945	p. 111
Conclusion	p. 121
The Place of Italian Fascism in European History	p. 123
Documents	p. 129
Patriotism in newly unified Italy	p. 130
Criticism of liberal Italy	p. 130
The Futurist Manifesto	p. 131
The proletarian nation	p. 132
The young Mussolini condemns Italy's war in Libya, 1	p. 133
The young Mussolini condemns Italy's war in Libya, 2	p. 133
Left-wing interventionism	p. 134
The defeat of Caporetto	p. 134
The Arditi	p. 135
The ideal soldier	p. 136
The Legend of the Piave	p. 136
Fascist squadism	p. 137
Early Fascist programmes	p. 138
The 1919 elections	p. 139
Landlords defend themselves	p. 139
Mussolini's first speech to parliament	p. 140
Giolitti supports Mussolini's first government	p. 141
Matteotti's speech to the Chamber of Deputies	p. 142
Mussolini's 'clarification' speech	p. 142
The Lateran Pacts	p. 143
The Fascist conception of the state	p. 144
Respect for state authority	p. 145
Achievements of Fascism	p. 145
The spirit of Fascism	p. 146
Fascist manhood	p. 147
Limited effects of Fascism	p. 147
The conquest of Ethiopia	p. 148
The expected role of women	p. 149
Terrorizing Addis Ababa, 1	p. 149
Terrorizing Addis Ababa, 2	p. 150
Nazism and Italian Fascism	p. 150
The Manifesto of Racial Scientists	p. 151
Hitler's view of Mussolini and Italy	p. 152
German success embitters Mussolini	p. 153
The Pact of Steel	p. 154
Italian lack of military preparedness	p. 154
Declaration of war	p. 155
The Grandi motion	p. 156
Death of the nation?	p. 156
Further Reading	p. 159
References	p. 170
Index	p. 177
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