Paul Corner. The Fascist Party and Popular Opinion in Mussolini's Italy.

Abstract

Paul Corner's exploration of the Italian Fascist Party and its reception at the grassroots level represents a major contribution to the social history “from below” of Benito Mussolini's dictatorship. As such, his book offers a valuable antidote to a body of recent scholarship by cultural and intellectual historians who have focused principally on the goals and aspirations of the regime's ideologues, organizers, and propagandists. Corner shifts the focus of analysis from fascist ideals, intentions, and goals to the processes of their actual implementation and reception by ordinary Italians at the provincial level where, he argues, the “real existing” movement functioned. His findings are clear and unequivocal: “Italy proved stronger than Fascism”(p. 4). The Fascist Party already had failed at home in its efforts to penetrate the many provincial worlds of the peninsula and transform Italy and Italians into a virile and unified national community long before Mussolini forged an alliance with Adolf Hitler, and the ensuing war brought his dictatorship to a disastrous end. For the majority of Italians, family, church, and local society continued to take precedence over the pursuit of national greatness. What makes these conclusions especially compelling is that they are based not on a few case studies but rather on an examination of developments in virtually all areas of the country.