Richard J. B. Bosworth

While I'm tempted to mark this sprawling tome down just for its overflowing nature, perhaps that is an indication of the messy quality of the topic. As while the Fascists prattled and blathered about refining Italy into a single well-honed weapon, the reality is that they had to deal with the amorphous nature of Italy as it actually was: a relatively poor country incompletely cobbled together and with aspirations that in retrospect look absurd. Bosworth never loses sight of the surreal show more interaction of the whole project; particularly at the level of the man in the street.

The paradox of it all is that while the impact of the regime was relatively shallow, at least in terms of impacting the traditional mediating structures of Italian society, Mussolini and his bosses still had enough reach and menace to make their influence felt, particularly in the first ten or so years of the regime before Mussolini began to wither under the pressure of being the strong man. There was also the matter that across Italian elites (and that includes the Catholic Church), the great project of building the Italian nation was seen as being worth pursuing, and so long as the Fascists pushed this agenda forward they were tolerated by the people that mattered.

That might be the dirty little reality of the whole experience; that there are limits to how much a state can be built out of blood and iron and the Fascists were the Italian establishment's answer to their own failures in this regard. This is at least until the solution failed, leaving Italians damned with the faint praise that they at least weren't the Nazis or the Stalinists, though leaving the example of the dead end that is the politics of resentment. show less

Given its marquee association with the Nazi Party, it can be easy to overlook that fascism began not in Germany during the 1930s but in Italy a decade beforehand. It was there in the aftermath of the First World War that a group of disaffected nationalists opposed to both the discredited Liberal regime and the surging socialist movement gained power, imposing a one-party rule that would last until 1943. And at the head of this government was Benito Mussolini, an ex-Socialist and army veteran show more who as the self-styled Duce of the Fascist Party dominated Italian politics for nearly a quarter of a century, playing a central role in events form the early 1920s until the end of the Second World War in Europe.

Mussolini’s prominence in such pivotal historical events has ensured him a good deal of attention from historians and biographers, giving readers interested in learning about his life a range of approaches and perspectives from which to choose. Among the best of these options is Richard Bosworth’s study of Mussolini and his time. In it he sifts through the propaganda-fueled myths and anti-fascist criticisms to provide an account of his controversial subject that examines critically his political views, the nature of his regime, and his responsibility for the decisions that brought Italy to ruin in the 1940s. It’s one that favors analysis over description, which its key to its value as a work on its subject.

This focus becomes apparent in the early chapters, in which Bosworth describes Mussolini’s childhood and education within the context of the times. Growing up in the Romagna, young Benito was raised in a crowded household. Seeking to avoid his country’s mandatory military service, he emigrated to Switzerland, where he worked odd jobs in construction before taking advantage of a general amnesty for draft dodgers. Though Mussolini was qualified as a schoolteacher it was politics which engaged his interest, and he had established himself as an activist and newspaper for the socialist cause in the years leading up to the First World War.

The war in Europe precipitated Mussolini’s break with the socialist cause. While most Italian socialists opposed the war, as the editor of the Socialist newspaper Avanti! Mussolini soon came out in favor of Italian intervention. Expelled from the Socialist Party, Mussolini soon embraced other heretical ideas, and when Italy joined the war in 1915 Mussolini soon enlisted for the fight. Bosworth’s coverage of Mussolini’s wartime service is disappointingly thin, as he focuses more on Mussolini’s political evolution during this period rather than on his activities in uniform. It’s a choice that embodies both the strengths and weaknesses of Bosworth’s approach to covering his subject’s life.

In some ways Mussolini’s nationalistic disaffection with the socialists’ opposition to the war anticipated the general malaise effecting postwar Italian politics. In this respect he and the fascist movement were ideally positioned, combining as they did the rejection of both the status quo of Liberalism and the socialist alterative. Yet Bosworth stresses the continuities between the fascist regime and its predecessors. For all of his revolutionary talk, Mussolini did little to disrupt the underlying status quo of power, relying on similar systems of clientage and patronage that has characterized Italian politics for decades. Though fascists now dominated Italian government, their rule proved far less vicious than those who were inspired by Mussolini’s example to establish similar regimes throughout Europe.

In part because of this Mussolini soon found himself struggling to maintain his position at the forefront of European politics. Initially as willing to confirm to the international status quo as he was the domestic one, the unraveling of the Versailles settlement created opportunities too tempting to resist. Realizing them increasingly tied Mussolini’s regime to Nazi Germany, which soon reduced Italy to the status of a junior partner. The even more ill-advised decision to join the Second Word War on Hitler’s side soon exposed the hollowness of the Italian military and the superficiality of the changes the fascists had wrought on Italy. By the time he was dismissed as prime minister Mussolini was a rapidly aging shell of his former self, soon to become little more than a figurehead for a war that would only bring further misery to the country he had once governed.

As a prominent scholar of modern Italy, Bosworth brings a social historian’s perspective to understanding Mussolini and his legacy. This proves a valuable asset in describing his subject’s background and the broader effects of his regime, as context and consequence are never far from his consideration. Yet Bosworth often takes his readers’ familiarity with Italian history and the fascist movement for granted, leading him to gloss over the background to the events he covers. Often key personalities are introduced by their last names only, with their roles and importance only hinted at. Not only can this blunt the point that Bosworth is making, it unnecessarily limits the audience for his book. This is particularly unfortunate, for while some may get lost in the flurry of names and passing references to other events in Italian history, those who persist will benefit enormously from Bosworth’s sharp analysis and persuasive assessment of his subject. While this may not be a biography of Mussolini for beginners, it is one no English-language reader who wishes to understand him can ignore. show less

Many, many little vignettes, interwoven into a long month-of-reading patchwork, 740 pages thick.

Keeping track is impossible, so read as though you are living through a turbulent mess of a time, watching new shows, hearing gossip, and forgetting who is who half the time, until they come to get you, that is.

And if it is a library book, do not underline fascist speeches that sound like Republicans on Fox TV. Let the future readers figure it out themselves.

"R. J. B. Bosworth explores the social climbing of Claretta’s family, her naïve and self-interested commitment to fascism, her diary’s graphically detailed accounts of sexual life with Mussolini, and much more. Brimful of new and arresting information, the book sheds intimate light not only on an ordinary-extraordinary woman living at the heart of Italy’s totalitarian fascist state but also on Mussolini himself."

I knew very little about the woman who ended her days with Mussolini - show more and this book did much to expand upon my knowledge. Based upon Claretta's diary entries, Richard Bosworth gives us an insight into the mind of Claretta - who often appears as a petulant child, given to hysterics and dramas in order to get her own way; and whose idolisation and infatuation with the Italian leader borders on the slightly obsessive.

I was probably anticipating a different style of narrative (hence my two stars), and with a sold two initial chapters devoted to the sex-life of Mussolini and his list of his lovers (or rather conquests) and their fates, I began to wonder when we might meet Claretta and discover how she met her ultimate fate.

The love-life of Mussolini is worthy of a book itself - chapter upon chapter could then be set aside for the multitude of women in his life - of which Claretta was but one. I consider this work, however, to be more for the academic rather than someone looking for a scandalous tell-all.

Merged review:

"R. J. B. Bosworth explores the social climbing of Claretta’s family, her naïve and self-interested commitment to fascism, her diary’s graphically detailed accounts of sexual life with Mussolini, and much more. Brimful of new and arresting information, the book sheds intimate light not only on an ordinary-extraordinary woman living at the heart of Italy’s totalitarian fascist state but also on Mussolini himself."

I knew very little about the woman who ended her days with Mussolini - and this book did much to expand upon my knowledge. Based upon Claretta's diary entries, Richard Bosworth gives us an insight into the mind of Claretta - who often appears as a petulant child, given to hysterics and dramas in order to get her own way; and whose idolisation and infatuation with the Italian leader borders on the slightly obsessive.

I was probably anticipating a different style of narrative (hence my two stars), and with a sold two initial chapters devoted to the sex-life of Mussolini and his list of his lovers (or rather conquests) and their fates, I began to wonder when we might meet Claretta and discover how she met her ultimate fate.

The love-life of Mussolini is worthy of a book itself - chapter upon chapter could then be set aside for the multitude of women in his life - of which Claretta was but one. I consider this work, however, to be more for the academic rather than someone looking for a scandalous tell-all. show less