Benito Mussolini’s Practices of Fascism and Dictatorships – Annotated Bibliography
Alcalde, Á. (2020). The Transnational Consensus: Fascism and Nazism in Current Research. Contemporary European History, 29(Special Issue 2 – [Religion and Socialism in the Long 1960s: From Antithesis to Dialogue in Eastern and Western Europe – May, 2020]), 243-252.
How did Fascism and its associated consequences transcend national borders and impact the world in its entirety? The historian and author Angel Alcalde uses the transnational history perspective (similar methodology as comparative history) in this review article to argue that the historical basis of both fascism and National Socialism has tremendously benefitted and revolutionized from the epistemological advancement of transnational history in terms of their regimes, movements, and ideologies. According to the author, historians had previously believed that Fascism had originated as a solution (counterrevolution and national rebirth) to the interwar and other endogenous national problems in different nation-states across Europe, but with mixed success.
However, the beginning of the transnational history perspective has given rise to a new perspective on Fascism amongst historians. They view it as a unitary transnational and global occurrence whose expansion across Europe and the rest of the world was based on entanglement and cross-border exchange, interaction, hybridization, mutual inspiration, and transfer process. Consequently, the source would help in the understanding of the question.
Falasca-Zamponi, S. (2019, February 7). Ordinary anti-Fascism? Italy and the fall of Fascism, 1943–1945. Journal of Modern Italian Studies, 29(1, 2019), 171-189.
In this article, the author uses personal diaries that were written from 1943 to 1945 (from the fall of Fascist regimes through the end of the Second World War) to explore the life and meaning of ordinary citizens in interaction with official narratives. The key temporal moments that the article centers on include Mussolini’s downfall on 25 July 1943, the 8 September 1943, and on 13 October 1943 when Italy proclaimed war against Germany. I will particularly use the article to assess the Italians’ perception of both Fascisms and its functions in [re]shaping Italy’s history.
Griffin, R. (2015, November 23). Decentering Comparative Fascist Studies. Fascism, 4(2), 103-118.
The article attempts to front a modern comparative understanding of the expressions of the ideology behind the nature of idealism. He argues that the traditional tendency of the 1930s’ Eurocentrism-based comparative fascist studies to treat the Italian Fascism and Nazi Fascism as the solely authentic expression of fascism and fascist ideologies is flawed. Thus, he postulates that the generic or peripheral fascist forces, movements and manifestations like those witnessed in colonial South Africa, Argentina, Chile, or Brazil, etc. are very critical to the understanding of the ideology. In particularly, he postulates that these peripheral and largely failed fascist movements can tremendously enrich our knowledge-level on Nazism and Fascism. The paper will help me draw a deep understanding of and comparison on the critical aspects of Fascist and dictatorial practices like the role of organized Christianity, anti-Semitism, eugenics, and racism, etc., in these movements.
Iodice, E. F. (2018, June 1). Lessons from History: The Startling Rise to Powerof Benito Mussolini. The Journal of Values-Based Leadership, 11(2, Summer/Fall 2018, Article 11).
In this paper, the Rome-based scholar attempts to explore the factors that led to the rise of Benito Mussolini, a dictator and a Fascist, to power in Italy in the 1920s. The phenomenon was unlikely in a country that acted as a symbol of western civilization. The author argues that dictatorship and totalitarianism (condemnation of the media, harsh government measures, cultural bigotry, xenophobia, etc.) became the order of the day after the new parliamentary elections of 1924 when the National Fascist Party gained control of the parliament.
The review paper will be useful especially when discussing the characteristics of Mussolini’s Fascist and dictatorial regimes. The author explains that it was characterized by Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights, Powerful and Continuing Nationalism, military supremacy, rampant sexism, mass media’s control, obsession with national security, lack of separation between religion and state/ government, suppression of labor unions, rampant cronyism and corruption, fraudulent election, etc. Both surprisingly and interestingly, some of these totalitarian and fascism characteristics are still present in some countries even today.
Nolte, E. (1966). Three Faces of Fascism: Action Francaise, Italian Fascism, National Socialism [English Version of 1963’s original, Fascism in Its Epoch] (1 ed.). Henry Holt & Company, Inc.
Arguably, no meaningful argument on the topic may be meaningfully and constructively sustained without drawing some insights from this book. The book 1965 translated in English as The Three Faces of Fascism and German as Der Faschismus in seiner Epoche. The author was a respected historian and philosopher, and the book is widely viewed as both his seminal work and magnum opus on the history of Fascism. Nolte argues that Fascism and its accompanying totalitarian came about as both a reaction against and resistance to modernity. He primarily relied on the German philosophy of history tradition as the basis for his hypothesis and methodology by comparatively analyzing French Action Francaise, Italian Fascism, and German Nazism movements. His conclusion was that Fascism was anti-bourgeois, anti-capitalist, anti-communist, and anti-liberalism – thus making it to be the great anti-movement. The work will be primarily helpful when drawing a comparison between these movements, and in explaining their resultant tragic consequences like the Holocaust.
Pinto, A. C. (April 23, 2013, December 1). The Nature of Fascism Revisited. New York, NY, The United States of America: Columbia University Press.
The book explores topics that are related to theoretical reflections and empirical research on Fascism that the author has been conducting. The author hails a new institutionalist turn in Fascism studies by re-exploring its specific dimensions that had been neglected by social science scholars, for instance, nominally democratic institutions like parties and legislatures or decision-making organs that are typically a critical component to dictatorial regimes. This article will help me in exploring the factors that that may cause the survival or downfall of dictatorships and dictators, and employ it in the context of Benito Mussolini and Fascism.
Stanley, J. (2018, December 15). How Fascism Works: A Yale Philosopher On Fascism, Truth, And Donald Trump. Politics & Policy. (S. Illing, Interviewer) Vox.
The concept of Fascism has been and will continue to be the subject of attention from and debate by millions of people across the globe. It is even feared that the perspective may have lost its originally-intended and foundational characters laid down by Benito Mussolini. What exactly is Fascism? In this article, Sean Illing records his interview of an author and Yale philosopher – Jason Stanley -who attempts to clarify the meaning and functioning of Fascism in the modern world. The professor majors on the characteristics and functioning of propaganda and rhetoric on politics.
Stanley views Fascism in terms of a spectrum- political method and power rhetoric. Thus, since power exists at the core of fascist ideology, the method to gain and retain that power is Fascism. Thus, Stanley identifies Fascists and dictators [like Bennito Mussolini] use fascist politics and rhetoric that were about the identification of the common enemies through scapegoating, appealing to the majority [in-group], followed be the destruction or distortion of truth to replace it with power. Such clarifications will be necessary in my presentation.
Waxman, O. B. (2019, March 22). What to Know About the Origins of Fascism’s Brutal Ideology. Retrieved June 1, 2020, from Time: https://time.com/5556242/what-is-fascism/
The article critically analyzes the entire lifecycle of Fascism – and its re-creation through neo-fascism – to explore the origin of its brutal ideology. The author postulates that Benito Mussolini seemed to not have had intentions to lead via violent authoritarianism when he founded the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento on March 23, 1919. However, the proceeding Fascist Party saw militant squads fatally attack fellow countrymen under his rule. He would then lead massive brutality in Ethiopia and mass persecutions and murder of Italian Jews population amongst other targets of Holocaust, after he created an alliance with Adolf Hitler. Mussolini thought of democracy as a failed system and party and expression liberty a sham. Thus, Fascism sought to unite people under state authority, and make them worship nation over class. The article is useful in understanding the beliefs of Mussolini, and his Fascist and dictatorial practices. Other forms of Fascism, like anti-feminism, White Supremacist movements, cult leadership, hyper-nationalism, etc.