fascism & mussolini: this page displays links to the history of fascism and to mussolini's italy   

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  Gerardo Dottori, Il Duce. Click to go to source article   casahistoria - web site for students of modern history!






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Browse down the page or just click one of these sections....
 
1. What is Fascism?
General Definitions | Italian Fascism
Historical interpretations
Futurism
2. Biographies of Mussolini
3. Fascist Italy
Rise to Power | Life in Italy
Control & Propaganda | The Church
Economics | Racial policies  
Women and the family (separate page)
4. Comparisons with other totalitarian states 
5. The end of Mussolini
 
 
  other related casahistoria sites
 
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Women in Totalitarian States ·
 
Mussolini ·  Franco · Peron ·
The South American Military Regimes ·
Weimar Germany & rise of Hitler · Hitler ·
 
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Allende & Pinochet ·
 
 
 
 

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casahistoria is recommended by:
BBC Radio 4 History Channel 4 History
BBC radio,
UK
Channel 4 TV, UK Birmingham GRID for Learning, UK UK joint university database Argentina's national paper
SBC Education
Blue Ribbon HOT site, USA
SovLit, Harvard Univ, USA


 

 

 

1. What is Fascism?                                                    go to top of page


 

fasciValuable sites in English on Mussolini are limited, this page indicates the more useful.

 

See also: 

Ideologies of left & right: Comparison of the ideologies of left and right that were fundamental to the growth of the ideas of fascism

 

casahistoria pages on Hitler · Franco · Peron  and The South American Military Regimes

 

General Definitions 

  • Fascism A clear and concise account of the origins and development of Fascism by Dr C Jazwinski.
  • The original site is now dead. This is a copy.
  • What is Fascism Some General Ideological Features by Matthew N. Lyons, an independent scholar and freelance writer who studies reactionary and supremacist movements.
  • Fascism in Europe: Documents and articles Excellent selection from the Mosaic Perspectives on western civilisation site §
  • Fascist Ideology This page is for educational purposes, and a project for a history course at the US Dickinson College....The red background is grim though......... §
  • 14 Features of Fascism as defined by Umberto Eco set out very clearly in a table form with edited examples of modern examples of fascism.
  •  §
  • 'The Anatomy of Fascism' By Zeev Sternhell, Reply by Adrian Lyttelton from New York Review of Books
  • Fascism: A Reader's Guide Edited by Walter Laqueur. This is the extract by Zeev Sternhell, Colorado College from Laqueur. Academic survey of the movement.
  • The Nature of Fascism Extract from the Roger Griffin book, (St. Martin's Press, 1991), where he attempts to define "generic fascism," - the term he uses for those characteristics which are found in all fascist movements and ideologies, from Mussolini's Fascist Party to contemporary neo-fascist organizations.
  • The functions of fascism. (Download link is at the bottom of the page). Podcast lecture by Michel Parenti who argues that fascism is a new order and consciousness that served the same old power structure and promised to solve the ills of the many while protecting the interests of the few. He answers in detail who financed the Fascist parties and what services the fascists rendered in return. Podcast by a-Infos Radio project
  • Economic Fascism Looks at the broader global appeal of fascism in the inter war period - especially to industrialists. By Thomas J. DiLorenzo 1994 in Truth Seeker
  • Race and Visualism Interesting look at impact of fascism (and other influences) on how society has visualised itself. By William Washabaugh
  •   §
  • Trotsky on Fascism - What It Is and How To Fight It Discover Leo Trotsky's attitude towards fascism through a pamphlet he wrote in the 1930's. Read his definition of the movement.

Italian Fascism

Historical interpretations
Futurism
  • Futurism  Click on this site to see the Italian revolutionary Art that influenced young Mussolini. Clearly presented. A good place to start. Do not select the full screen option......
  • Futurism  A committed, but interesting arts site on the movement. From the introduction to the site: Futurism was an international art movement founded in Italy in 1909. It was (and is) a refreshing contrast to the weepy sentimentalism of Romanticism. The Futurists loved speed, noise, machines, pollution, and cities; they embraced the exciting new world that was then upon them rather than hypocritically enjoying the modern world’s comforts while loudly denouncing the forces that made them possible. Fearing and attacking technology has become almost second nature to many people today; the Futurist manifestos show us an alternative philosophy.  Too bad they were all Fascists....
  • Modernism Web site of the V&A exhibition in London (May-July '06) the V&A. Very useful site bringing together a mass of exhibits, drawings and photos it looks at the development of the movement in the interwar period. The focus is rightly on developments in central & eastern Europe and index can be centred on countries individually.

 

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2. Biographies of Mussolini  go to top of page

 

Biographies (and the many YouTube clips) of Mussolini on the web are, if anything, even more subjective than those on Lenin, Stalin, Castro and Che. The following are amongst the most useful. Use others with care to note any bias. 

Mussolini, family man....  

  • Power-mad Mussolini sacrificed wife and son 2007 Article from The Guardian by John Hooper about how Mussolini treated his first wife Ida Dalser, and their son Benito Albino
  • Lady of the Axis 1939 Time article about the ambitious influence of Mussolini's eldest daughter, Edda, wife of Count Ciano   
  • Margherita Sarfatti - The Jewish mother of Fascism Detailed article about Mussolini's first mistress. Sarfatti wrote art criticism when Benito Mussolini was appointed editor of the socialist journal Avanti in 1912. This is the story of their relationship told following an interview with her granddaughter. By Saviona Mane.
  • Clara Petacci Basic details on Mussolini's mistress from NNDB

 

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3. Italy - The Fascist State  go to top of page

 

Rise to Power

Life in Italy

Women and the family

Women in Fascist Italy See the separate casahistoria section in the Women in Totalitarian States site. Sections include:
Control & Propaganda   
The Church  
Racial policies 
  • Racial Theories in Fascist Italy By Aaron Gillette (2002). Google Book extracts. This is the first book to examine in detail the debates over racial theory in fascist Italy between the academic and scientific communities, and among the fascist leadership itself. Gillette analyzes the shifting official policies on race that resulted from the influence of Nazi Germany, prominent fascists and scientists and Mussolini himself on racist theory.
  • The racial question From the Fry Collection of the University of Wisconsin-Madison archive.

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4. Comparisons with other totalitarian states  go to top of page
 
 
See the comparison table of totalitarian states in casahistoria
 
 

 

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5. The end of Mussolini go to top of page

 

 

 

casahistoria home                              visit caféhistoria for updates and current topic news




and finally: fed up looking at this screen? Try a book instead!           go to top of page

Use casahistoria's list of recommended reads to curl up with ...

 

These have all been read and are recommended by casahistoria
 
 


For a longer(!) list including several novels & fuller crits/descriptions go to


             see what we are reading!



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