MUSSOLINI'S ITALY: Twenty Years of the Fascist Era

by Max Gallo ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 27, 1973

Not a study of Italy under the Duce, but an informal biography of Mussolini himself, which falls in between Laura Fermi's classic Mussolini (1961) and John Collier's frivolous Duce! (1972). The early years are well done, describing how Mussolini's explosive temperament and opportunism made him the post-World War I spokesman for a vaguely defined anti-capitalist Italian chauvinism which the ruling powers were glad to sponsor against communism in a pinch. There is a biting account of the 1921 ""March on Rome"" and its myth of popular insurgency. Once in power, Mussolini wiped out the left and the unions; the Pope blessed him, Churchill blessed him, American liberals blessed him -- until he became the Nazis' ""Gauleiter for Italy."" Gallo provides a painterly sense of the structure of craven ""hierarchs"" in the Fascist party; unfortunately, during the war period, the book fastens ever more narrowly on Mussolini's shaven skull, to the exclusion of such matters as the Allies' intervention in his fate. Gallo, a history professor at Nice, has lately devoted himself to popular, somewhat melodramatic writings on fascist history -- see his Night of the Long Knives (1972) and the coauthored For Those I Love (1972). There is a broad audience for this sort of book -- for some it will be an introduction, for others a reminder.

Pub Date: Sept. 27, 1973

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1973

Categories: NONFICTION