Mussolini 1883-1915: Triumph and Transformation of a Revolutionary Socialist PDF
Preview Mussolini 1883-1915: Triumph and Transformation of a Revolutionary Socialist
S E I D U T S N A C I R E M A MUSSOLINI 1883-1915 N A I L Triumph and Transformation of a A T I Revolutionary Socialist D N A edited by N A Spencer M. Di Scala I L and Emilio Gentile A T I Italian and Italian American Studies Series Editor Stanislao G. Pugliese Hofstra University Hempstead , New York , USA Aims of the Series This series brings the latest scholarship in Italian and Italian American history, literature, cinema, and cultural studies to a large audience of specialists, general readers, and students. Featuring works on modern Italy (Renaissance to the present) and Italian American culture and society by established scholars as well as new voices, it has been a longstanding force in shaping the evolving fi elds of Italian and Italian American Studies by re-emphasizing their connection to one another. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/14835 Spencer M. Di Scala • E milio G entile Editors Mussolini 1883–1915 Triumph and Transformation of a Revolutionary Socialist Editors Spencer M. Di Scala Emilio Gentile University of Massachusetts Boston University of Rome Boston, Massachusetts, USA Rome, Italy Italian and Italian American Studies ISBN 978-1-137-53486-6 ISBN 978-1-137-53487-3 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-53487-3 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016947040 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2 016 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Cover image © World History Archive / Alamy Stock Photo Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Nature America Inc. New York The registered company address is: 1 New York Plaza, New York, NY 10004, U.S.A. “I have had a very stormy and adventurous youth. I have known the good and the evil of life. I have built for myself a culture and a solid scientifi c outlook. My time abroad has facilitated my acquisition of modern languages. I have trekked from one horizon to another… It has been three years since I have been living in Forlì, and I feel once again the nomadism in my blood spurring me to go elsewhere. I am restless, with a wild temperament, and I shun popularity. “I have loved many women, but oblivion is extending its grey veil over the memory of those long ago loves… “What does the future hold for me?” “Completed on March 11, 1912, the eve of my liberation, at 3:00 P.M., cell number 39, Forlì prison.” Benito Mussolini, La Mia Vita P REFACE The details of Mussolini’s life in the period between 1902 and 1914, when he was a militant Socialist, have been studied widely both during the period of the Fascist regime and, particularly, after its fall and the death of the Duce. The varying and contrasting interpretations made by historians of Mussolini the Revolutionary Socialist swing between those who compare him to Lenin in his vision of revolution and the revolutionary party and those who instead deny that Mussolini ever was a true Socialist or Marxist, even when he was one of the most powerful leaders of the Italian Socialist Party and editor of the Party newspaper A vanti! . All these interpretations have been infl uenced by the Fascist experience that followed and have a tendency to look for Mussolini the Fascist in Mussolini the Socialist. The essays in this book concentrate on different aspects of Mussolini’s life during his youth, when he was a Socialist. Fascism did not exist and was not even dreamt of, so the authors and editors wrote them (as far as possible) imagining that Mussolini had died on May 23, 1915, when Italy entered the First World War. Thus, the contributors have tried to avoid reading the future into the past, and reject any notion of inevitability, which they believe to be ahistorical. In order to accomplish this aim, they have highlighted the most important aspects of the young Mussolini’s life, and their impact, and have tried to maintain a dispassionate tone in their writing. Of course, they are aware of Mussolini’s later history and under- stand the consequences of his regime, but the extent to which his early experiences contributed to these later events can be seen in the young man’s philosophy and actions are a matter for a different discourse, per- haps related to his early thought, perhaps not. vii viii PREFACE It is now 100 years since Italy’s intervention in the Great War. This intervention stood at the root of Mussolini’s dramatic break with the Socialist Party. It took place as a result of his conversion to the support of Italy’s involvement in hostilities, his foundation of the Il Popolo d’Italia newspaper, and his expulsion from the political party. At this distance in time, both the editors and the contributors to this book believe it useful to reexamine the experience of Mussolini the Socialist without looking back from his later position as the founder of Fascism and the leader of a totalitarian regime. The essay taken from the notes of the late Philip Cannistraro reexamines Mussolini’s childhood. The Swiss academic Simone Visconti analyzes here Mussolini’s time spent in Switzerland, one of the most important periods of his educational and political development; the essay he pres- ents forms part of his ongoing research into Mussolini’s progress from socialism to fascism. Mussolini’s subsequent stay in Trento, and in particu- lar his relationship with Cesare Battisti, is examined by Stefano Biguzzi, the author of an important biography of this Irredentist from Trentino. Marco Gervasoni, one of the foremost Italian experts on the theories of George Sorel, revolutionary syndicalism and the culture of political social- ism, sheds new light on the controversial question regarding of the infl u- ence of revolutionary syndicalism on Mussolini’s thought and actions. In addition, two American historians have investigated Mussolini’s relation- ship with reformist socialism: Spencer M. Di Scala, the author of seminal works on Filippo Turati and Italian socialism, has examined the attitude of reformists on the left to Mussolini’s ideas of revolution, while Charles Killinger, the most infl uential American biographer of Salvemini, has brought to light both areas of profound discord and passing agreement between the revolutionary from Romagna and the reformist dissident from Puglia. To the professional journalist and press historian, Pierluigi Allotti, has been entrusted the chapter on Mussolini the Journalist. Emilio Gentile has recounted Mussolini’s experience as a Socialist from his debut as a militant Socialist to his conversion to interventionism, placing at the center of his investigation the infl uence that the reality and the ideal of the Terza Italia, the Third Italy, had on his ideas of revolution and his later support for participation in the war. The fi rst chapter, by Spencer Di Scala, describes how Mussolini observers (including Mussolini himself) have interpreted his youth, and what are the most important contributions of these essays that, we hope, will infl uence readers’ understanding of the “wild adventure that was his life.” PREFACE ix In works such as this, some repetition is inevitable, as are differences in the value given to and the judgments made upon particular questions. However, such diversity is certainly of benefi t in this attempt to analyze the thoughts and actions of Mussolini the Revolutionary Socialist with- out seeing him already dressed in a black shirt and leading armed squads intent on destroying the Socialist Party, an organization that he himself had been instrumental in setting on an uncompromising course toward revolution—a path from which it could not turn back. Boston, Massachusetts Spencer M. Di Scala Rome, Italy Emilio Gentile
The list of books you might like
