Rethinking the History of Italian Fascism

The aim of the book is building a general history of Fascism and its historiography through the analysis of thirteen different fundamental aspects, which were at the core of Fascist project or of Fascist practices during the regime.

In the last years, the discussion around what is fascism, if this concept can be applied to present forms of politics and if its seeds are still present today, became central in the political debate. This discussion led to a vast reconsideration of the meaning and the experience of fascism in Europe and is changing the ways in which scholars of different generations look at this political ideology and come back to it and it is also changing the ways in which we consider the experience of Italian fascism in the European and global context. The aim of the book is building a general history of Fascism and its historiography through the analysis of 13 different fundamental aspects, which were at the core of Fascist project or of Fascist practices during the regime. Each essay considers a specific and meaningful aspect of the history of Italian fascism, reflecting on it from the vantage point of a case study. The essays thus reinterrogates the history of Fascism to understand in which way Fascism was able to mould the historical context in which it was born, how and if it transformed political, cultural, social elements that were already present in Italy. The themes considered are violence, empire, war, politics, economy, religion, culture, but also antifascism and the impact of Fascism abroad, especially in the Twenties and at the beginnings of the Thirties.

The book could be both used for a general public interested in the history of Europe in the interwar period and for an academic and scholarly public, since the essays aim to develop a provocative reflection on their own area of research.

Autorentext

Giulia Albanese is Associate Professor of Modern History at the University of Padua, Italy. Her research focuses on Fascism and transnational fascism, political violence. She is the author of Dittature mediterranee. Sovversioni Fasciste e colpi di stato in Italia, Spagna, Portogallo (2016) and The March on Rome (2019).

Inhalt

0. Introduction 1. Squadrismo and Repression. An Italian Road to Violence? 2. From the colonies to the empire. Africa and the national fascist project 3. The Regime's Military Defeat: War and Bombings 4. The fascist ruling class. The geography of power between centre and periphery 5. Fascist economy. Private powers and State intervention 6. Fascism and Religion: a Religious Creed for the Imperial Nation 7. Science and Fascism, or Fascist Science? Meteorology in Fascist Italy 8. Subject citizens: The meaning of citizenship under Fascism 9. The Fascist Welfare State: Continuities, Ruptures, Mediations 10. Alltagsgeschichte Italian-Style? New Perspectives on Everyday Life in Fascist Italy 11. "To Educate" or to Entertain? Propaganda, Mass Media, and Mass Culture 12. Becoming Antifascist: Uncertainties, Dilemmas, Contradictions vis-à-vis Italian Fascism 13. The Fascist Model Abroad. Not Just Propaganda (1922-1935)