Rise Of Mussolini Research Articles

Salvemini, militant historian, and his publications on Fascism

AbstractThis essay analyses Salvemini's major works on Fascism, namely The Fascist Dictatorship in Italy (1927), Mussolini Diplomate (1932) and Under the Axe of Fascism (1936). The focus of this analysis is twofold: to explore both Salvemini's methodology and the events leading to the publication of these works. In The Fascist Dictatorship in Italy, Salvemini examines the origins and the rise of Mussolini's movement, highlighting the complicity of the monarchy, the army, and industrial magnates. In Mussolini Diplomate, he analyses Fascist foreign policy from 1922 to 1932, in which Salvemini is unable to identify a consistent strategy, but only a propagandistic approach aiming to foster diplomatic relations. In Under the Axe of Fascism, Salvemini dissects Fascist economics, debunking the idea that the corporate state was an original and equitable compromise in the conflict between capital and labour, as was being portrayed abroad. An analysis of these three volumes brings into focus some noteworthy aspects of Salvemini's so-called ‘historiographical workshop’, which have hitherto been overlooked by historians (such as his adept use of sources and his endeavour to combine social sciences and economics), as well as underscoring his ability to forge cultural and intellectual networks, an essential element for undertaking such a complex task.

The Rise of Fascism in Italy: Versions and Critiques

A century ago, on October 28th Benito Mussolini and twenty thousand members of his National Fascist Party marched on Rome. Prime minister Luigi Facta assured the king that Italian armed forces could resist the few on the march and suggested declaring a state of emergency. King Victor Emmanuel III and his elite for two years had been watching with apprehension the rise of the communist left and sought a strong hand to curb disorders. Mussolini was counting on that and was quick to react. He receded from his socialist views and eagerly propounded his antisocialist ideology and vowed to put an end to antigovernmental strikes. Once Mussolini became prime minister, it marked the beginning of the formation of a totalitarian regime in Italy. At that time Italy was devastated by the war that ended with a Mutilated victory and was on the brink of bankruptcy. Mussolini exploited people’s sentiments of betrayal and dissatisfaction only to initiate rapprochement with Nazi Germany and draw the country into yet another war. In the recently published book on the rise of Mussolini, the authors clearly allude to the involvement of British money in the creation of the fascist party in Italy. Though British and French conservatives did transfer certain money to Mussolini, the proposed thesis is a clear exaggeration. It was the internal situation in Italy that gave rise to fascism. And today’s policy of the ruling coalition led by Giorgi Meloni does not coincide in any way with the signs of fascism listed by Umberto Eco.

The Turmoil Of India In The Twilight Years Of British Empire – In Nayantara Sahgal’s Novel “Mistaken Identity”

Nayantara Sahgal is the author of nine Novels, ten works of non-fiction and wide-ranging literary and political commentary. She has received the Sahitya Akademi Award, the Sinclair Prize and the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize.
 The Novel “Mistaken Identity” is an elegant, adroitly constructed, mordantly written story of the playboy Bhushan singh, son of the Raja of Vijaygarh. He is arrested and thrown into jail and charged with treason.
 The Novelist successfully depicts the British officers’ partial Judgements, tortures of Indian National Activists and the prison rules.
 As news of violent world events penetrates the prison walls – civil war in Turkey, the rise of Mussolini, Gandhi’s Dandi March, mass arrests, the death of hunger-strikers in Lahore – Bhushan discovers that fate has played a cruel trick on him.
 The present paper is an attempt to bring out the story of a love and obsession that brilliantly summons up the turmoil of India in the twilight years of empire.

Il Partito liberale italiano e il fascismo come sua «figliazione [sic

Historiography has usually depicted the Italian Liberal Party (Pli) as an experiment organised by moderate liberals, in the background of Italy from the decline of the liberal state to the advent of the Fascist regime. Nevertheless, to comprehend this political actor thoroughly, it is necessary to identify the different attitudes among those who supported Fascism. In this way, it will be possible to understand the reasons underneath Pli’s positive stance on the rise of Mussolini.

Harmonising the City

Brisbane in the 1920s certainly had its tense moments, but what struck me most forcibly in browsing the local newspapers from the period was how successfully political and social conflicts were absorbed into the peaceful, civil and law-abiding fabric of Brisbane life. World-altering events like the Russian Revolution, the Armistice and the Treaty of Versailles, the Irish Troubles and the rise of Mussolini were reported and discussed in the press and elsewhere, but matters seldom went further than that despite the real potential — given the presence of significant Russian, German, Irish and Italian minorities in the city’s population — for ‘imported’ tensions. Even the momentous political developments that occurred in Brisbane in the early 1920s, when the state government’s efforts to secure foreign loans were sabotaged by an opposition-funded delegation to London, and the Premier, EG (‘Red Ted’) Theodore, forced the parliamentary upper house to terminate its own existence, failed to polarise or fracture the community to any significant degree.