Sternhell lu d'Italie

Abstract

Zeev Sternhell : an Italian reading, Sergio Romano. Returning to Z. Sternhell's book, Ni droite ni gauche (Paris, Le Seuil, 1983), Sergio Romano explains why it could appear controversial to an Italian reader. While it is true that Mussolini himself acknowledged his debt to Sorel and to the Italian syndicalist revolutionaries, the cultural sources of fascism were diverse. The roots of its ideology, which Sternhell sees mostly in France, must not be separated from their peninsular attachments and from the context of moral crisis following the First World War. What is lacking in this otherwise valuable book is a more rigorous intellectual definition and a more concrete historical one.