The Fascist Party and Popular Opinion in Mussolini's Italy
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Published:19th Jul '12
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- Paperback£34.99(9780192855787)
The question of how ordinary people related to totalitarian regimes is still far from being answered. The tension between repression and consensus makes analysis difficult; where one ends and the other begins is never easy to determine. In the case of fascist Italy, recent scholarship has tended to tilt the balance in favour of popular consensus for the regime, identifying in the novel ideological and cultural aspects of Mussolini's rule a 'political religion' which bound the population to the fascist leader. The Fascist Party and Popular Opinion in Mussolini's Italy presents a different picture. While not underestimating the force of ideological factors, Paul Corner argues that 'real existing Fascism', as lived by a large part of the population, was in fact an increasingly negative experience and reflected few of those colourful and attractive features of fascist propaganda which have induced more favourable interpretations of the regime. Distinguishing clearly between the fascist project and its realisation, Corner examines the ways in which the fascist party asserted itself at the local level in the widely-differing areas of Italy, at its corruption and malfunctioning, and at the mounting wave of popular resentment against it during the course of the 1930s - resentment and hostility which, in effect, signalled the failure of the project. The Fascist Party and Popular Opinion in Mussolini's Italy, based largely on unpublished archival material, concludes by suggesting that the abuse of power by fascists mirrors much wider problems in Italy related to the relationship between the public and the private and to the modes of utilisation of power, both in the past and in the present.
a seminal study * P. Lorenzini, CHOICE *
[an] informative and well-researched book * David Gilmour, Times Literary Supplement *
excellent, well-sourced and well-argued * Philip Morgan, English Historical Review *
Paul Corner's [book is a] stimulating, powerfully argued and important new study of the relationship between the fascist party and popular opinion in inter-war Italy. * Christopher Duggan, Europen History Quarterly *
This is an utterly convincing account that will contribute to a better understanding of Italians' daily life during the ventennio. No doubt Corner's impressive academic work will be of interest not only to scholars of Italian fascism, but also to those who want to analyse the experience of ordinary people under any form of dictatorship. * Francesco Messina, History *
Paul Corner's new book, however, acts as a major corrective to what might almost have seemed an established view. Based on meticulous social-historical research ... Corner depicts a regime with a yawning gap between what it claimed about itself and its presence in the lives of its subjects ... Corner's monograph must become the basis of all future reading on this dictatorship. * R.J.B. Bosworth, The Historian *
The richness of its documentary sources, the breadth of its territorial coverage, and the rigor of its analysis make this book an invaluable addition to the historical scholarship on Italian fascism as it existed and was experienced at the provincial level. * Anthony L. Cardoza, American Historical Review *
If a study deserves exuberant praise from Richard Evans, it is ... Paul Corner's investigation of fascism in the provinces. * Martin Baumeister, German Historical Institute Year Book 2014 *
[a] stimulating, powerfully argued and important new study of the relationship between the fascist party and popular opinion in inter-war Italy * Christopher Duggan, European History Quarterly *
ISBN: 9780198730699
Dimensions: 241mm x 164mm x 24mm
Weight: 636g
320 pages