Mussolini's Italy: Life Under the Fascist Dictatorship, 1915-1945 | R. J. B. Bosworth

Mussolini's Italy: Life Under the Fascist Dictatorship, 1915-1945 | R. J. B. Bosworth | brilliant and delightful

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Mussolini's Italy:...

	Mussolini's Italy: Life Under the Fascist Dictatorship, 1915-1945 R. J. B. Bosworth Penguin (Non-Classics), 2007 - 720 pages average customer review:based on 8 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

With Mussolini ?s Italy, R.J.B. Bosworth?the foremost scholar on the subject writing in English?vividly brings to life the period in which Italians participated in one of the twentieth century?s most notorious political experiments. Il Duce?s Fascists were the original totalitarians, espousing a cult of violence and obedience that inspired many other dictatorships, Hitler?s first among them. But as Bosworth reveals, many Italians resisted its ideology, finding ways, ingenious and varied, to keep Fascism from taking hold as deeply as it did in Germany. A sweeping chronicle of struggle in terrible times, this is the definitive account of Italy?s darkest hour.

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Excellent

This is an ambitious and successful attempt to write the social history of Fascism. Italian Fascism, Bosworth reminds us, controlled Italy for almost a generation, a considerably longer period than the disastrous experiment of Nazi rule of Germany. How was Fascism experienced by Italians? To what extent did Fascism change Italy? What were the essential features of Fascist rule? What were the well springs of Fascism? Bosworth treats all these issues and more in this carefully documented and well written volume. Rather than pursuing these issues topically, Bosworth has organized this book chronologically. He begins with the nature of Liberal Italy and the experience of WWI, moves through the interwar period and the grim events of WWII, concluding with a concise but revealing chapter on postwar fascist movements. He weaves his topical themes into the narrative very well, providing considerable analysis and showing the historically dynamic nature of the Fascist experience. This combination of narrative and analysis is excellent.
Bosworth is particularly concerned with providing a balanced view of Fascist Italy. The Fascist state is often viewed popularly as a comic opera dicatorship. Bosworth shows well that Fascist Italy appears to be relatively benign only by comparison with Nazi Germany or the Stalinist Soviet Union. This oppressive dictatorship destroyed democracy and human rights in Italy, and by Bosworth's reckoning, was ultimately responsible for about 1 million deaths in Italy, the Balkans, and Africa. It was a police state in which millions of Italians were informing on each other, corrupting the quality of public life. At the same time, Bosworth addresses the "totalitarian" nature of the regime, a claim made by the Fascists themselves that they were remaking the Italian people. Due in large part to the actions of Fascist leaders themselves, this claim is shown to be a fraud. Fascist government itself exemplified the reliance on chains of patronage and clientage with its associated corruption typical of Italian society. Mussolini was quite content to compromise with powerful existing institutions like the Monarchy, the Papacy, and the Army. Bosworth shows very well the continuity the Fascist state had with the Liberal state it replaced and indeed, many of the crucial features of Italian Fascism appear to be extensions of some of the worst features of pre-WWI Italy.
Bosworth's work is careful, thoughtful, and presented extremely well.

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brilliant and delightful

R.J.B. Bosworth, an Australian professor of Italian history, wrote a very well-received biography of Mussolini, and then agreed with a reviewer who suggested that Mussolini's era cannot be reduced to one man. This book is his answer to the void.

It's meticulously researched, extremely well-written, pulls no punches in describing the evil of Mussolini's regime but yet puts it into perspective by comparing it to the German and Russian strains of totalitarianism. He captures the opera buffa aspects of fascism quite well, the futility of much of the rhetoric and plans, the less than unanimous enthusiasm for fascism. He describes, for example, the career of an assiduous sycophant who wrote "The Imitation of Mussolini," an almost sacrilegious spin-off of a Kempis' "Imitation of Christ."

This is not a political screed in the guise of a history; it's refreshing to see him call John Cornwell's book "absurd." Nevertheless every so often one does glimpse that his critique of fascism is colored by his devotion to Anglo-Saxon political correctionism, as when he quotes a lieutenant in the Italian army noting that "Out of the sea, salt. Out of women, trouble," and deems this blatant misogyny. My time spent with peoples of the Mediterranean littoral lead to me suspect that this was less the fruit of misogyny than simply the flowery language used by both men and women in those cultures. Most tantalizing is his implicit and explicit description of how the administration of G.W. Bush is unabashed in associating with the spiritual and political heirs of Mussolini.

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Well-written, except for political commentary

Professor Bosworth puts together a well-balanced look at the development of Italy's Fascist Party and its subsequent takeover of Italy. While arguing that Mussolini was far from innocent, Bosworth does show that he was considerably less malignant than either Hitler or Stalin. For instance, Mussolini did not create anything approaching the horrors of Auschwitz. Moreover, he shows how, unlike those other 2 dictators, Mussolini never established a truly totalitarian state (despite his boasting to the contrary). For instance, the Catholic Church remained as a leading institution within Italian society, and did not always toe the Fascist line. The same thing applies to the Italian monarchy (although Bosworth does not present King Victor Emmanuel III in a positive light). Moreover, he makes a convincing case that the Rome-Berlin Axis was clearly a marriage of unequals, with Italy playing the role of a very junior partner (apparently, Italians did not figure highly in the Nazi racial hierarchy). Even though "national characteristics" are no longer en vogue among historians, I got the impression from this book that Italians were somehow culturally incapable of establishing a genuinely totalitarian state, not to mention one that would seek to create any sort of "new world order." Bosworth also peppers the book with references to Italian Jews who were somewhat active in the Fascist Party. This is obviously a striking contrast to the situation in Nazi Germany. On a more critical note, I wish that Bosworth would have given more attention to the issue of "Italia Irredentia" as a function of Mussolini's foreign policy. After all, the Paris Peace Conference did not resolve this issue in Italy's favor (as it had created Yugoslavia out of much of that territory). Why didn't Mussolini attempt to grab this territory before undertaking a far more costly invasion of Ethiopia? After all, Yugoslavia during this period was a rather unstable nation, in jeopardy of coming apart due to increased ethnic tensions. This would have been interesting to read about. In addition, I found Bosworth's random references to contemporary politics unnecessary. He should have focused all of his energy on his title subject.

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A good start but needs some more

Bosworth in his novel on Mussolini's Italy makes an effort to show how the fascist regime grew within the state and the extent to which it dominated the state. Fascism was not synonymous with Italian nationalism and Bosworth's explanations of the fascist growth lend credence to the idea that it was slow to take on. He categorizes fascism in various states and his most prevalent is the idea of a northern and southern fascism. This book also does an excellent job of showing how Mussolini's regime permeated the Italian state. The fascist ideals did meet significant resistance with the traditional liberals. The tough stance on labor and the opportunities for the church however drew many allies and allowed Mussolini to take power. One of the points lacking here is that the monarchy played a large role in his rise to power. I feel that Bosworth does not address that issue and I would like to have seen it done more.

Overall this is the best attempt we have on fascist Italy however this book could have been done better. It is incredibly ambitious and either should have been broken into two books or made one book longer. There is a lot of information that is glazed over very quickly leaving some holes in the analysis. If you want an introduction to fascist Italy this is a great place to start but I would not stop here. There are many rich ways to explore the topic and looks at Ray Mosley's Mussolini's Shadow or Dennis Mack Smith's biography of Mussolini are great additions. Understanding how the fascist regime impacted the state and the world make for interesting questions and is something anyone studying World War II should not miss.

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reviews: page 1, 2

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