Fascist Italy in the 1930s: Popular Opinion in the Provinces

Abstract

Abstract For a long period after the end of the Second World War, the question of how ordinary Italians had related to fascism was rarely posed. In 1945, following military defeat and German occupation, Italian politicians attempted to rescue the country’s reputation in the eyes of the victorious powers by stressing the anti-fascist tradition within Italy and exalting the role of the Italian Resistance in the years 1943– 5. Every effort was made to distance Italy from its fascist past and from its disastrous alliance with Nazi Germany. As a result there was no Italian Nuremberg; trials of fascist military leaders — war criminals — were delayed and then suppressed (with the connivance of the Allies) and few political leaders were ever condemned. Perhaps understandably, in the frenzy of postwar reconstruction there was little desire to delve into the past. For more than two decades after the war, fascism received little detailed attention from historians and the books that did address the phenomenon tended to limit their attentions to a chronicle of events with little pretence at providing any critical analysis of the successes and failures of the movement.