Italy Reviews Its Fascist Past: A Bibliographical Essay*

Abstract

NOT long after the fall of Mussolini on July 25, I943, Italians began to publish the records of Fascism and to analyze its place in Italy's history. Starved by twenty years of rigid censorship, they took to the pen with enthusiasm, though not always felicitously. During the last ten years, Fascists and anti-Fascists, generals and admirals, bureaucrats and private citizens, journalists, a few historians and political scientists have all contributed to the now vast literature. With varying degrees of veracity and/or skill they have probed almost every aspect of Fascism: the period of incubation and preparation after the First World War; its domestic and foreign policies during twenty years of power; its collapse during the Second World War; its internal quarrels and corruption; and its final outburst of violence in the German-dominated Social Republic of Salo in northern Italy. Consequently, the historian who approaches this recent period of Italian history faces no danger of a paucity of data. Rather, the number of publications and documents available may prove an embarrassment of riches. This article will attempt to analyze and evaluate the most important and useful works among the many hundreds of memoirs, biographies, histories, documents, and other materials which have appeared in Italy since I944. It will not endeavor to survey publications of an earlier date,' nor will it include books published outside of Italy during the years covered by this essay.