Fascism, the War, and Structures of Feeling in Italy, 1943-1945

Fascism, the War, and Structures of Feeling in Italy, 1943-1945 PDF Author: Simonetta Falasca-Zamponi
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192887505
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
On July 25, 1943, news of Mussolini's resignation and subsequent arrest stunned Italians leaving them dumbfounded. After two decades, fascism had fallen without any advance warning. As festive events marked the incredible outcome and reminders of the past were destroyed, an uncontainable joy seemed to pervade Italians. But what did people actually celebrate? How did they understand the bygone dictatorship, which was soon to be reincarnated in the Italian Social Republic (RSI)? Drawing on more than one hundred diaries written by ordinary citizens (and some prominent figures as well) and inspired by Raymond Williams's concept of structures of feeling, the book examines Italians' perspectives on fascism at a very critical moment in their history. With the country mired in a devastating war further complicated by the September 8, 1943 armistice with the Allies and subsequent German occupation--followed by the eruption of an Italian-against-Italian conflict, the switching of alliances, and the declaration of war against Germany on October 13, 1943--the fast pace of history seemed to deflect Italians' attention from their immediate past. Amidst the daily experience of bombings, hunger, displacement, and death, coming to terms with twenty years of dictatorship turned out to be an arduous enterprise. Whether those who had lived under the fascist regime wished 'not to think of it and not to speak any more about it' as philosopher Benedetto Croce maintained, it is hard to ascertain. In truth, little is known of what Italians felt and thought about fascism after its precipitous demise. This book remedies the gap in historical scholarship by assessing how Italians confronted their present and negotiated their past during the two years from the fall of the regime to the definitive defeat of the RSI and the end of the world war in May 1945. By bringing to life the cultural imaginaries and practices of the past, the book raises ostensibly intractable questions on the epochal impact of what often appears as inconsequential: the typically unseen and seemingly banal power of everyday experiences.

Fascism, the War, and Structures of Feeling in Italy, 1943-1945

Fascism, the War, and Structures of Feeling in Italy, 1943-1945 PDF Author: Simonetta Falasca-Zamponi
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192887505
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 353

Get Book Here

Book Description
On July 25, 1943, news of Mussolini's resignation and subsequent arrest stunned Italians leaving them dumbfounded. After two decades, fascism had fallen without any advance warning. As festive events marked the incredible outcome and reminders of the past were destroyed, an uncontainable joy seemed to pervade Italians. But what did people actually celebrate? How did they understand the bygone dictatorship, which was soon to be reincarnated in the Italian Social Republic (RSI)? Drawing on more than one hundred diaries written by ordinary citizens (and some prominent figures as well) and inspired by Raymond Williams's concept of structures of feeling, the book examines Italians' perspectives on fascism at a very critical moment in their history. With the country mired in a devastating war further complicated by the September 8, 1943 armistice with the Allies and subsequent German occupation--followed by the eruption of an Italian-against-Italian conflict, the switching of alliances, and the declaration of war against Germany on October 13, 1943--the fast pace of history seemed to deflect Italians' attention from their immediate past. Amidst the daily experience of bombings, hunger, displacement, and death, coming to terms with twenty years of dictatorship turned out to be an arduous enterprise. Whether those who had lived under the fascist regime wished 'not to think of it and not to speak any more about it' as philosopher Benedetto Croce maintained, it is hard to ascertain. In truth, little is known of what Italians felt and thought about fascism after its precipitous demise. This book remedies the gap in historical scholarship by assessing how Italians confronted their present and negotiated their past during the two years from the fall of the regime to the definitive defeat of the RSI and the end of the world war in May 1945. By bringing to life the cultural imaginaries and practices of the past, the book raises ostensibly intractable questions on the epochal impact of what often appears as inconsequential: the typically unseen and seemingly banal power of everyday experiences.

The Fascist Party and Popular Opinion in Mussolini's Italy

The Fascist Party and Popular Opinion in Mussolini's Italy PDF Author: Paul Corner
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198730691
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
Contradicts the current orthodoxy that there was a generalised popular consensus for the fascist regime and for Mussolini's rule, at least until the disasters of the Second World War. Demonstrates that there was widespread and mounting hostility to the regime among large sections of the population, even in the 1930s.

Mussolini and His Generals

Mussolini and His Generals PDF Author: John Gooch
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521856027
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 516

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Book Description
Study of the relationship between the military and foreign policies of Fascist Italy, 1922 to 1940.

Mussolini's Theatre

Mussolini's Theatre PDF Author: Patricia Gaborik
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108830595
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 327

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Book Description
A vividly written portrait of Benito Mussolini, whose passion for the theatre profoundly shaped his ideology and actions as head of fascist Italy This consistently illuminating book transforms our understanding of fascism as a whole, and will have strong appeal to readers in both theatre studies and modern Italian history.

Researching the Far Right

Researching the Far Right PDF Author: Stephen D. Ashe
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 131530466X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 433

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Book Description
Researching the Far Right brings together researchers from across the humanities and social sciences to provide much needed discussion about the methodological, ethical, political, personal, practical and professional issues and challenges that arise when researching far right parties, their electoral support, and far right protest movements. Drawing on original research focussing mainly on Europe and North America over the last 30 years, this volume explores in detail the opportunities and challenges associated with using ethnographic, interview-based, quantitative and online research methods to study the far right. These reflections are set within a wider discussion of the evolution of far right studies from a variety of disciplinary viewpoints within the humanities or the social sciences, tracing the key developments and debates that shape the field today. This volume will be essential reading for students and scholars with an interest in understanding the many manifestations of the far right and cognate movements today. It also offers insight and reflection that is likely to be valuable for a wider range of students and scholars across the humanities and social sciences who are carrying out work of an ethically, politically, personally, practically and professionally challenging nature.

Fascist Spectacle

Fascist Spectacle PDF Author: Simonetta Falasca-Zamponi
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520926153
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
This richly textured cultural history of Italian fascism traces the narrative path that accompanied the making of the regime and the construction of Mussolini's power. Simonetta Falasca-Zamponi reads fascist myths, rituals, images, and speeches as texts that tell the story of fascism. Linking Mussolini's elaboration of a new ruling style to the shaping of the regime's identity, she finds that in searching for symbolic means and forms that would represent its political novelty, fascism in fact brought itself into being, creating its own power and history. Falasca-Zamponi argues that an aesthetically founded notion of politics guided fascist power's historical unfolding and determined the fascist regime's violent understanding of social relations, its desensitized and dehumanized claims to creation, its privileging of form over ethical norms, and ultimately its truly totalitarian nature.

The Routledge Companion to Fascism and the Far Right

The Routledge Companion to Fascism and the Far Right PDF Author: Peter Davies
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134609523
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 452

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Book Description
The Routledge Companion to Fascism and the Far Right is an engaging and accessible guide to the origins of fascism, the main facets of the ideology and the reality of fascist government around the world. In a clear and simple manner, this book illustrates the main features of the subject using chronologies, maps, glossaries and biographies of key individuals. As well as the key examples of Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy, this book also draws on extreme right-wing movements in Latin America, Eastern Europe and the Far East. In a series of original essays, the authors explain the complex topics including: the roots of fascism fascist ideology fascism in government and opposition nation and race in fascism fascism and society fascism and economics fascism and diplomacy.

War Through Italian Eyes

War Through Italian Eyes PDF Author: Alexander Henry
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9781032038476
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
There is a popular notion that the Italian armed forces of the Second World War were an inferior fighting force. Despite the vast numbers taken prisoner, detailed studies of the experiences of these soldiers remain relatively uncommon and the value of this group to furthering our understanding of the Italian experience of war under Fascism is also rarely acknowledged. The existence in the National Archives of hundreds of pages of transcripts of covert British surveillance of Italian POWs has made it possible to engage with their experiences and opinions in much greater depth. The euphemistically termed 'Special Reports' present historians with a unique insight into how all levels of Italian soldiery viewed Fascist Italy's experience of war, 1940-1943. This book examines reactions to Italian political leadership, the progress of the war, as well as Italian soldiers' 'everyday' views on sex, war, the enemy, death, food, their allies, bravery, race, and killing. These fascinating documents reveal the complexity of the outlook of these men, which persistent - and influential - national stereotypes and historiographical trends fail to acknowledge.

Allies and Italians under Occupation

Allies and Italians under Occupation PDF Author: I. Williams
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230359280
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 207

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Book Description
Using original documents, the Allied Occupation of southern Italy, particularly Sicily and Naples, is illustrated by examining crime and unrest by Allied soldiers, deserters, rogue troops and Italian civilians from drunkenness, theft, rape, and murder to riots, demonstrations, black marketeering and prostitution.

Waste and Consumption

Waste and Consumption PDF Author: Simonetta Falasca-Zamponi
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0415892104
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 78

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Book Description
First Published in 2011. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.