A bódult nemzet. A Mussolini-imádat anatómiája

by Christopher Duggan, Tábori Zoltán (Translator)

"A nép olyan, mint egy nagy gyerek: irányításra, segítségre, és ha kell, büntetésre van szüksége" - világosította fel Mussolini a Daily Express olvasóit 1925-ben. Christopher Duggan brit történész A bódult nemzet című könyve felkavaró látleletet ad a karizmatikus vezérétől elbűvölt Olaszországról. A szerző születésétől kezdve követi nyomon a fasizmust, s közben rávilágít, miért állt az olaszok többsége olyan eltökélten a mozgalom mögé. Megpróbál magyarázatot találni arra, mi lehetett Mussolini elképesztő befolyásának a titka. Korabeli levelekből, naplókból, újságcikkekből, titkosrendőrségi aktákból, utcadalokból és rádióműsorokból rajzolódik ki, miképpen élte meg az átlagember napi szinten a fasizmust, hogyan hatotta át ez az ideológia a politikát, a vallást és a mindennapi életet oly mértékben, hogy Mussolini öröksége még ma is jelen van Olaszországban.

Genres: History, Italy, Nonfiction, World War II, Politics, Italian Literature, Historical

564 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Christopher John Hesketh Duggan was a British historian specialising in the political, social and cultural history of modern Italy. He began his career as a research fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford and then at All Souls College, Oxford. In 1987, he moved to the University of Reading where he remained until his death. He had been Professor of Modern Italian History since 2002.

Reviews

[Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

The rise and fall of Benito Mussolini is brought to life through the eyes of his supporters. By using their stories and “voices” Christopher Duggan animates the human drama that played out in these years in Italy. While many readers know this epic story, they will they will want to read this to sense and feel the times. The writing conveys the era’s danger, desperation and passion.

Duggan shows how in the chaos, poverty and disappointment following World War I, Mussolini (like Hitler) was able to seize power and solidify it. He capitalized on the sentiment that he was strong enough to create order where chaos and violence (most of which was perpetrated by his own party) reigned. He fashioned himself the superman of Nietzsche and fostered the image of “The Duce” who would be Italy’s savior. He shut down Italy’s fledgling democracy dealing himself full power.

For each of the periods of his almost 20 year reign there are personal stories such as those of the “squadristi” (violent fascists), a mafia fighter in Sicily, soldiers in the Ethiopian campaign, students missing their teachers when the racial laws barred Jews from government employment, fascists who questioned the leaders around their beloved Duce, the Duce’s daughter as she provides war relief in Sicily and more. Quotes from the diary of his most intimate mistress, Carletta Petacci, occur throughout.

The writers demonstrate an emotional adoration that is both religious and familial: p. 64 “My leader, our leader… will-power in his jaw… my life belonged to him, only him”, p. 247 “The heavens seemed closer to me.” P. 248 “You have instilled in us, Duce … with love of a son for his father…” p. 301 “Duce, when you receive this letter I will be already dead, fallen on the field of honor with your name guarded on the depths of my soul.” Some are romantic, like those of the Bologna housewife who wrote him 848 letters, p. “I feel your love strongly, and this gives me the strength to remain yours and wait.” “So many kisses I would give my dear Benito…”

Published this year, The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe shows the contempt that Mussolini and his early fascists had for the Church. Pope Pius XI made concessions to spare violence against clergy and church property. The Church gave both passive and active approval to fascism, allowing its symbols to be used by to promote fascism. Duggan does not discuss this, but you can clearly see the conflation of Catholicism and fascism in the cult of the Duce.

Duggan shows how King Victor Emmanuel III was happy to cede the job of running the country to the Duce. The descriptions of the short dull king and his robust prime minister are sadly comical as the King rubber stamps any and all issues brought to him by Mussolini. The king’s abrupt dismissal of Mussolini could have used more background, on how/why this King, who permitted so much for so long, finally put his foot down.

This is a book of “Fascist Voices”, so while there is a chapter on the opposition, you can approach the final chapters of this book with the idea that all of Italy is in thrall to Mussolini. The emotional outpouring of relief when he is arrested, the lack of support of his new “Republic” and the reactions to his death show that while there were many fanatics, there was a vast silenced majority.

Italy did not did not have war crimes trials, so fascism was never debated. Duggan shows that after the war it just went underground. He notes some life coming back to the movement, with former Prime Minister Berlusconi blithely quoting from Mussolini and the press laughing at joke comparing the extra marital life of the two prime ministers. The book ends with the “voices” of the modern day fascists who leave notes by Mussolini's tomb. While the messages don’t have the religious overtones, they show continued adoration.

This is a must read if you are interested in this period of Italian history.

[Sam Schulman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a disconcerting, useful, and wonderful book. Duggan's aim is to write a history of the fascist regime in Italy through the writings and testimonies of diarists and letter writers he quotes from archives all over Italy, most notably the huge collection of letters ordinary Italians wrote to Mussolini - which is only a fraction of the original collection, most of which was destroyed by wartime bombing. Duggan is a fine historian who has written an excellent history of modern Italy, and the first thing to say about this book is that it is an excellent way to learn and absorb a complicated history, thanks to the vividness of the personalities one meets, and also through Duggan's compressed but sure-handed connective tissue. The story of Mussolini's rise and fall is one I've read many times, but I feel this one has fixed it in my mind in a way that none other has done.
I'm sure that those with a little knowledge will quibble, perhaps rightly, with Duggan's selection of quotations and some of his detail. I myself felt, fresh from a reading of naughty Ernst Nolte's very theoretical and Heiderggerian disquisition on Mussolini and Italian fascism, that Duggan avoids discussion of fascist theory - but as I kept reading, I decided that as a whole, the narrative provides more and more density and seriousness to Mussolini's enterprise. The anti-bourgeois nature of Mussolini's creation slowly emerges - and in a way, you can see how Fascist Italy was really a kinder, gentler version of the Bolshevik revolution - without Cheka, mass murders, and enslavement.
And Duggan does speak about moments in history that I almost never see discussed - such as that Mussolini sent a quarter of a million Italian soldiers to the Eastern Front, who fought alongside the Wehrmacht when it invaded the USSR.
Here's what's disconcerting. Duggan can find very little evidence of any opposition to fascism, except among a few professional trade unionists and difficult characters. His conclusion, and that of the dozens of "voices" he quotes,is that Italy - working class, middle class, academics, journalists, intellectuals, was fairly satisfied with fascism, thought it a success - not just until but through the atrocious conquest of Ethiopia with poison gas - up until Mussolini imposed the racial laws in 1938 at Hitler's urging. Moreover, even then, after an initial feeling that Mussolini had done something really wrong, Italians soon began to be irritated by the complaints of Italy's Jews about their deprivation of citizenship, and began to feel that perhaps Musso had been right after all.
In other words, the egregiously shallow claim made by Daniel Goldhagen, that all Germans bear racial guilt for the horrors of Nazism, is as true about prewar Italians as it is false about Germans.
My greatest criticism is that Duggan doesn't make much of the the most consistent and continuous source of resistance to the regime, which came from serious Catholic laymen and individual priests (the middle management of the Church was on board with the regime, although Duggan is right to make an exception of the Pope himself). Duggan provides plenty of evidence for this - the brave young priest who is beaten to death by thugs for keeping his boys in the Catholic scouting movement, etc. But he doesn't exempt them from general blame. Perhaps I am overinfluenced by the great Italian war novel, The Red Horse, which follows a group of serious young Catholics through the war, but this seems to me a blemish and an oversimplification on Duggan's part.


Here's what's disconcerting.

[Igor Ljubuncic · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a pretty solid book, if a bit over-academic and tedious at times.

In a nutshell, it's the history of the Italian fascism, the rise, the fall and the consequences, but with a spin - letter upon letter from devoted followers of the regime, writing to the Duce and themselves, sharing personal stories on how they felt and lived the times.

This is a unique spin, because you don't normally get to hear the "ordinary" people retell an important part of the history. And it's fascinating.

The religious and sexual devotion of women, the dutiful and unrepentant soldiers, the odd sceptic. Words from Mussolini are also there (private exchanges with his mistresses), including his penchant for drama and hyperbole.

The author goes through quite a few periods - the humiliation after WWI, the anarchy, what liberalism meant in Italy in those times, the rise of the fascism, the domestic policies, the invasion of Ethiopia, the fickle relation with Germany (and envy of Hitler), the poor conduct of the Italian army in WWII, the almost too-sudden removal of Mussolini from power, the subsequent civil war, and the history of overnight denial that still affects the Italian society.

The only downside is that Christopher gets a bit prosaic, with too much focus on the letters and not enough on the historical elements around them. All in all, though, he manages to do a reasonable work with this book. An interesting piece for history buffs.

Igor

[Christopher Saunders · Rating 5 out of 5]

Remarkable book detailing life under Benito Mussolini's Fascist government. Duggan draws from diaries, letters and private correspondence to detail the upheaval wrought by Mussolini's reign. He shows Mussolini's appeal rested on several pillars: Italian nationalism frustrated since Garibaldi's Risorgimento; a "sick," barely functioning democracy; Italy's disastrous performance in World War I and diplomatic "betrayal" at Versailles. By Duggan's account, Mussolini was the right man in the right time, charismatic, decisive and a master of image. And as he shows, most Italians stood by Il Duce until the consequences of his autarchist, imperialist New Order became inescapable. Duggan may be faulted for downplaying Fascism's cultural and economic sides, but it's otherwise an incredibly balanced, nuanced work.

[Kuszma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Duggan alulról indulva építi fel a Mussolini-rezsim élettörténetét – nem a döntéshozók érdeklik, hanem levelekre, visszaemlékezésekre és önéletrajzokra támaszkodva azt vizsgálja, az állampolgárok miként látták a fasizmus kirügyezését, virágba borulását, és azt, amikor a végén jöttek az elefántok, és a földbe taposták az egészet. Jogos megközelítés, hisz egy diktátor önmagában csak pszichológiai szempontból érdekes – történelmi tényezővé csak azok által válik, akik hisznek benne. Mindebből egy nagyon komplett, nagyon erőteljes elbeszélés jön létre, ami számtalan ma is aktuális kérdésre ad nagyon is megfontolandó választ: vallás és rezsim kapcsolatáról, a globalizmusellenes populizmusról és sikerének okairól, liberalizmus és bolsevizmus összemosásáról és persze elsősorban magáról a diktátorról, mint jelenségről.

Az „erős kezű vezér” iránti igény persze nem új jelenség, talán egyidős az emberiséggel. Ám a fasiszta Olaszország példája jól szemlélteti azokat az elemeket, amik a mai napig népszerűvé teszik, és amelyeket nem árt észrevenni, ha nem akarunk megint ötven-hatvan évet visszacsusszanni az időben. És hát ezeket a kérdéseket tisztábban lehet vizsgálni Mussolini, mint Hitler vagy Sztálin példáján keresztül, mert a felfoghatatlan méretű tömeggyilkosságok nem vonják el a figyelmünket.
1.) A vezérelv kiemeli a diktátort, és a közösség fölé helyezi. Ennek következménye, hogy a diktátor nemcsak a néptől különül el, hanem a saját beosztottjaitól is – a kritika tehát nem ér fel hozzá. Nyugodtan lehet gyűlölni az alsóbb vezetőket, letolvajozni, lehülyézni őket – és ugyanakkor hinni, hogy ha a Nagy Vezér tudna arról, miben mesterkednek, megbüntetné őket. Mert a Nagy Vezér semmiért sem hibás. A diktatúrák alapvető paradoxonja ez: a vezér mindent tud, mindenre képes, de semmiért sem felelős.
2.) A vezérelv akkor is nagyon jól jön, amikor a rendszernek valójában nincsen világosan megfogalmazható ideológiája – csak retorikája. A vezér nem fejezi ki magát tisztán, gyakran ellentmond magának, ám ez előnyévé válik – így ugyanis mindenki vélheti azt, hogy épp az ő gondolatát és vágyait fejezi ki. Kereskedelmi kifejezéssel: kimaxolja a vásárlói célcsoportját azzal, hogy a lehető legtöbb embernek engedi, hogy higgyen benne.

És mindezeken felül: a vezér, mint egy gyűjtőlencse, fókuszálja magában mindazt, amit magunkba és a nemzetbe látni akarunk. A vezér egy óriás, ereje gigászi, szava zengő bariton, és ha csak őt nézzük, azt hisszük, mi is óriások vagyunk. (Még a hibái is a mi hibáink.) A vezér segít létrehozni egy illúziót, amiben a külső tényeknek nincs helye, a szavak (az üres klisék) teremtenek új valóságot. Csak hát az a helyzet, hogy a külső valóság akkor is létezik, ha mi sikeresen elfeledtük – úgyhogy ha a fejünk a falnak koccan, akkor bamm, a fal lesz az erősebb.

Nem értem, miért kell újra és újra megtapasztalnunk ezt a falat, csak hogy elhiggyük: ott van.

[Erik · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm going to be honest with you... this book was challenging to read and even harder to grade. I feel as this book started as a wonderful concept and idea for a book, but ultimately fell flat due to a lack of ingredients. I love the idea of using personal narratives, diaries, etc as a window into the cult of personality that was Mussolini. So I dove into this book with a great deal of vigor and anticipation, hoping for insights into how Fascist Italy came about.

Sadly, the book seems to lack a significant number of those voices, relying on relatively few examples blended with a melange of the commonplace references seen when discussing Mussolini. There was not nearly enough of these personal views for my taste, and it left me disappointed and hungry for what I was promised.

I'm also not convinced Mr Duggan added a great deal of insight into some of the claims made which mimic earlier positions by other authors and researchers. I sort of tire of the attempts to link Fascism with the Catholic Church (specifically the Pope), when frankly they were doing their best in situations outside of their control. It is easy to take the moral high ground when you are not the ones with bayonets in your back. I think there are also some questionable stances on the status of the Jews as well worth noting.

Now I don't want to appear all glum about this book read, as I did find it very interesting. My struggles reading it were mostly from frustrations over the same folks being used over and over for their "voices" and me wanting to hear from others. I know you can only use what sources actually exist, but I think hearing more from the common man would have benefited the quality of this book greatly. I wanted to know what the everyday folk thought. Maybe these people don't have time to write diaries.

The writing itself is easy to read, and I found the reading logical in presentation. The references were good, albeit very common ones outside the personal sources for the "voices". Vanilla in that regard I guess. That is how I feel about this grade too...vanilla. Saying I liked it seems too strong, but saying it was just ok seems too mild. 2.5 Stars? Well... I do like the concept a lot, so I'll round up to 3 Stars and hope someday we get a book giving us the voices of the commoners in the Axis, so we can understand more of how they were led down that terrible path.

[Ninel · Rating 4 out of 5]

★★★★☆
I read this book for an essay about Italian Fascism

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not quite what it promises to be. The author only used a small handful of diaries, cited very sparingly, and for constructing his narrative relied on the same secondary sources as everyone else, which is to say the now-largely outdated histories of the fascist period written before Renzo De Felice published his biography of Mussolini, or as a defense against De Felice's theses.

The one diary that is cited frequently is that of Clara Petacci, finally declassified only ten years ago, though discouragingly the manuscripts have only made available to three authors so far. Heavily redacted editions were published in Italian in 2010-11 by Rizzoli (the editors admitted that they were forced to omit over two-thirds of the material, and had to redact the entries they did include for space considerations) and this book seems to have been an attempt to capitalize on their recent publication. Unfortunately, the Petacci diaries as published by Rizzoli are completely bizarre and self-contradictory, either because of mistakes by the editors, journalists Mauro Suttora and Mimmo Franzinelli, or because the diaries themselves are not authentic.

The biggest issue with the diaries is that they put Mussolini in places he was not at on those days; another strange thing about the diaries is that Petacci, who came from a bourgeois family, had a good education and by all accounts was not stupid, was an absolutely terrible writer. Because most of what she wrote makes no sense, the nephew of Petacci believes that she was a British secret service agent, as a way to explain her often-cryptic writing.

Quote-mined, as they are in Duggan's book, they appear to make some sense and so the picture you get of Petacci's writing in this book is a paraphrase of a paraphrase of her actual diaries.

Another disappointing thing about this book was that there was no room in this "intimate history" for Mussolini's closest collaborator and lover for 25 years, the Italian Jewish socialist Margherita Sarfatti. She was with Mussolini from Forlì in 1911 to his time as editor of Avanti!, to Il Popolo d'Italia in 1915, to the March on Rome in 1922, wrote his official biography ("Dux") in 1925, right up to Mussolini's about-face in 1936, when he left the Anglo-French-Italian alliance and aligned Italy with Germany, and Sarfatti suddenly found herself no longer welcome at Palazzo Venezia. The name of Sarfatti only appears three times in this book. Once in one of the quotes from the Petacci diaries, as "the well-known art patron and critic and Mussolini's biographer," and in relation to two brief quotations from her 1925 biography. It seems that Duggan doesn't even know who Sarfatti was.

Neither was there much room for his wife, Rachele Guidi, or other collaborators of the early days, like Angelo Oliviero Olivetti, founder of the Fasci d'Azione rivoluzionaria internazionalista which evolved into the Fasci di combattimento, or Angelica Balabanoff, Enrico Corradini, Alceste de Ambris, etc. All important figures you can hardly write a book about fascism, especially an intimate history, without mentioning.

The theses seem to be that:

a) Mussolini was a megalomaniac and a buffoon, the former of which may be partially true, but far from the whole truth, and the second of which is the common result of reading too much into, and projecting onto Mussolini, the worst excesses of Achille Starace's own undeniable buffoonery

b) fascism was nothing but propaganda and empty promises. There was lots of propaganda, and it was very powerful and influential, but again, there was a lot more to it than that, and a lot was built and achieved, for better and for worse, in concrete terms

c) the supposed big revelation from Petacci's diaries, that Mussolini was an anti-semite, based on one sentence out of a diary of tens of thousands of pages, and contradicted literally hundreds of times elsewhere, not only in speeches but by the fact that he was sleeping with a Jewish woman for 25 years and a disproportionate percentage of the Fascist gerarchs were Jewish

d) restatement of the "Black Legend" alleging that Pius XI and Pius XII were "Hitler's Popes," a conclusion requiring the author to ignore a truly staggering amount of evidence to the contrary.

Having said all of the above, good things about this book were that the author writes in an engaging manner, and the narrative really flows. For the most part he avoids taking an overly polemical tone. Where primary sources (the only primary sources really used are the aforementioned handful of diaries) are used, they're well-integrated into the rest of the narrative.

I think Duggan is a good author, but maybe not an outstanding researcher.

[Ivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Une étude excellente comment l'appauvrissement des populations à merci des propriétaires terriens et autres petites aristocraties, des politiques prédatrices des grandes puissances étrangères subies et vu par la majorité de la population comme injuste et hostile, de surcroît lors ce que le pays se trouve dans une lutte sectaire permanente des parties politiques plus ou moins gérontocratie d'une société bouchée par des hiérarchies anciennes et nouvelles, mène les couches populaire tout aussi biens que les classes moyennes et supérieures vers les "forces vivantes et artistiques" de l'organisation fasciste. A lire et à méditer. Finalement, rien ni personne n'est hors de portée des courants simplificateurs, lorsque la situation y est propice.

[Kraig Puccia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Throughout Duggan’s book, Fascist Voices: An Intimate History of Mussolini’s Italy, he takes on the onerous task of evaluating fascist Italy through the eyes of the Mussolini’s supporters and how the demagogue was perceived by the general public. While many suffered under fascism and were victims of its violent political campaigns, some Italians had a very different experience with fascism and even accepted the emerging groups beliefs and tactics. Duggan makes use of various primary documents, including letters sent to Mussolini by children and other members of society expressing gratitude, newspapers, and even personal journals, many of which belonged to former soldiers. One of the most difficult aspects of evaluating a nation’s public opinion during authoritarian regimes or their rise to power is evaluating the sources, and although some examples in the book may offer genuine support, opposition voices were often silenced which lends to a skewed historiography being written during the period of contact or engagement. Understanding Mussolini’s rise to power through this collection of primary documents provides insight as to the reasons how or why people might have supported Mussolini and the fascist revolution, but also needs to be contextualized in the popular narrative of Italy’s “mutilated victory,” the seizure of the Fiume, and acts of the squadrismo and the terror they induced, all the way to Mussolini’s seizure of power. In his own preface, Duggan raises the question, “how much can be ascertained from diaries, letters, and memoirs about the degree to which the ideology of fascism resonated with ordinary Italians,” which is crucial when studying regimes such as this one (Duggan xx). There is an element of trying to understand fascism as that of a political religion, identifying that at the core of fascism in Italy, perhaps its central tenet, was faith, and how that was weaponized to give emotional resonance to the highly charged themes in Italian collective memory (Duggan xix-xxi). In the end, there is an evolving understanding of fascism in Italy throughout its rise, rule, and fall, and that such that public opinion is constantly changing, but the perception of Mussolini as an individual, the ideation of a “cult of personality,” was realized in the people’s expressed hope for him and necessity to form a true political religion.

The most relevant author that we have read throughout the course of this class is undoubtedly Passmore and his article, The Ideological Origins of Fascism before 1914, where he introduces the concept of fascism as a “political religion.” Duggan’s focus on Benito Mussolini, il Duce, lends much to the formation of a cult of personality around him, and Passmore identifies the fact that the political culture of a nation is determined by the values, history, and collective identity of the people. According to Duggan, Mussolini became emblematic of Italian struggle and suffering by embracing this narrative of victimization following World War I, despite being victorious, which garnered sympathy time and time again as he and his followers seized the Fiume. At the core of these petty politics and martyr narrative “There was an inevitable legacy of resentment,” towards other states who participated in World War I, but also towards those the fascists held personally responsible for their hardships during the war within Italy, namely the socialists (Duggan 29). The mobilization and manifestation of these hard feelings were made possible, however, by sympathetic individuals in the police force and the landowner’s associations who armed the squadristi and enabled their reign of terror (Duggan 42-43). Mussolini as a figure, the leading and preeminent voice throughout these events, was being a saint in the eyes of many. His birthplace was treated as a heritage site, in which ardent supporters of fascism frequently visited as a form of pilgrimage. Mussolini can be seen on numerous occasions being followed by processions which became increasingly connected to the Catholic Church as ecclesiastical authorities partnered with fascists and encouraged enthusiastic expressions of devotion to Mussolini as a necessary part of the “fascist faith” (Duggan 107). While the fascist supporters were largely wealthier individuals, part of the bourgeoisie who owned land or their own private enterprises, the Church played a major role in the formation and permeation of il Duce as part of the formation of a fascist political religion in Italy.

Where Duggan explores the cult of personality that surrounded Mussolini and examines various sources that extol fascist actions and figures, Corner’s article, The Fascist Party and Popular Opinion in Mussolini's Italy, is wary of the generalized understanding of fascism in Italy. Wide scale coercion led many Italians not to speak out against the rising fascist regime and those indifferent to the violence who neither supported nor were against fascism such that generalizations about the or popular opinion, or willingness of the Italian people to overlook such acts, is often neglected. Something that all historians must be wary of when studying authoritarian groups is that when it comes to evaluating the primary documents and sources, a complete picture is needed to fully understand and evaluate them to provide a full understanding of the period.

-------------------------
This is an invaluable source of scholarship to help understand the emergence of similar political movements and trends in the present day, whether those be here in the United States, in Europe, or any part of the world where right-wing political movements are on the rise, especially those centered around the creation of myth, legend, and lore around a single individual.

[Vicky · Rating 1 out of 5]

Had to read this for my History class at school. It was long winded and I had to stop 230 pages in.

[Joel Connealy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not very good. This book was made out to be this revolutionary form of writing history, and it falls completely flat. The diaries and letters that Duggan used are apparently a huge collection numbering in the thousands to tens of thousands. Which presents a problem; when you're writing an "intimate history" of Mussolini's Italy, if you come in with preconceptions (which is the job of a historian to put aside), you can basically use these letters and diaries of the common people of Italy to steer the "history" in whatever way you want, and that's what Duggan very clearly does.

Having read several books and histories of Mussolini, this read like someone who didn't enter this with a curious mind. I knew where it was going, what he was going to say, and what he was going to use.

The book's claim to fame is these alleged Petacci diaries, which are very bizarre and contradictory (some of it is one typewriter, who writes a diary on a typewriter?) But I digress. These diaries have only been released to a handful of authors and were kept locked away for 65 years under the full control of the Italian government, and again, they have entries that put Mussolini in places he wasn't. Even if they are 100% genuine, I'm not sure they're that valuable a source as it's just Mussolini talking to his mistress while they make love. And fake or suspect diaries have popped up a lot over WWII. There were the fake Hitler diaries, the fake Mussolini diaries, and the Ciano diaries, which are real, but they have been combed over and edited by the Allies, so they are a dubious, though not useless, source.

Even so, Duggan certainly didn't use them to their full potential. He used a few quotes from them, so you get this tiny portion of the diaries used mainly to drive home Duggan's own preconceived notions, one of which is to paint Mussolini as an antisemite on the same level as Hitler.

Despite this being a self-proclaimed "intimate history", there was apparently no room for Margherita Sarfatti, Mussolini's Jewish mistress for 25 years (1911-1936). She is mentioned, only with passing reference once or twice, and not as Mussolini's mistress, in Fascist Voices. It's a huge gap and it flies in the face of a lot of Duggan's notions (ask yourself, would Hitler have had a Jewish mistress?). She's not in this book, while historians like Renzo de Felice, Richard Lamb, Christopher Hibbert, even Jasper Ridley (who is very hostile to Mussolini) all found her too important a figure, given her cultural influence under Mussolini, to not mention her and her role in Italy at the time. So either Duggan doesn't know who she is (which seems unlikely), or he deliberately left her out.

Mussolini's wife Rachele and his family are hardly mentioned at all either. Several of his other close acquaintances aren't mentioned either.

Basically Duggan seems to be trying to paint Mussolini as incompetent and that fascism was basically all propaganda that didn't do much (which while it did use propaganda a lot, there was a lot more to it than that in material terms of what it did in Italy). Duggan is going with the mythic take on Italy, where everyone is just spellbound because "propaganda", which isn't a very interesting take for such a new history book on Fascist Italy. The history of Fascist Italy has been written many times, most thoroughly by Renzo de Felice (5,500 page biography of Mussolini) and Duggan didn't really bring much new to the table despite the claims.

A few positives. The diaries and letters of the common Italians are at least interesting. In terms of their use, it's all very anecdotal, which is the problem. But it's at least interesting. Duggan's writing is pretty good, it's readable enough, though the middle is a bit of a slog.

I don't think this book is very good as a history. It's very anecdotal, very basic in terms of the history of Fascist Italy, and doesn't bring much new to the table beyond letters of common Italians (may be interesting, but not very relevant), and the very suspect Petacci diaries. By basic, I mean there is almost NOTHING on WWII itself that I haven't read in Richard Lamb, Christopher Hibbert, Jasper Ridley, or Luigi Villari's books, but he also leaves out things that all of those authors include, which is very strange. I'd sooner recommend those author's books as histories of Fascist Italy and Mussolini, especially Richard Lamb, who takes the most academic point-of-view.

I applaud Duggan for trying to write a new type of history, but I think reading the letters and diaries of the Italians by themselves would be more useful for someone with an interest in the subject than this book and its limited selected quotations from these letters to fit into a wider narrative. Overall, this isn't a very good piece of research and I wouldn't recommend it.

[Atlantean BCT · Rating 3 out of 5]

The "voices" in this book provide a warning of how people can be beguiled by politicians offering simple solutions to complex problems. It also shows the dangers of when slogans and bombast assume more importance than facts. The final pages show how the attractions of fascism (despite its lack of any coherent ideology) and the craving for a saviour to sort out problems endure. The book also reveals how the Catholic church was complicit in the rise of the regime and helped to sustain it thereafter.

[Margaret Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extraordinary and disturbing. My mother went to high school in Mussolini's Italy. She was the only girl in her class and took Yugoslav citizenship after the war even though her parents became Italian.

After reading this book, I know why.

Dr Duggan received two awards for it and was honoured by the Italian government with the Commander of the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Én tényleg, nagyon-nagyon igyekeztem megérteni, mivel fogta meg az embereket Mussolini. De azt hiszem ehhez abban a közegben, akkor kellett volna élnem, így viszont csak értetlenül figyeltem, merre és hogyan haladnak a dolgok.
Ettől függetlenül nagyon érdekes olvasmány volt, nem egykönnyen fogom elfelejteni. És igencsak adott gondolkodni valót is.

[Mark Power · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very well-written book, doing a better job of bottom-up history than most. In focusing on ordinary Italians, with the odious figure of Mussolini in the background, the book provides a deeply depressing portrait of the psychology of the anti-democrat. Needless to say, a book more relevant now than it was when it was published.

[Kaitie Mannis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thorough research and smooth reading!

[chloe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this for A level revision but it was a genuinely engaging and readable book. I particularly enjoyed the sources from children's perspectives

[Michael Macdonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

this epic history of fascist Italy explores the development and support of Italian support for fascism. using individual diaries, Duggan exploresthe reaosn for support and trust, more often in Mussolini rather than his ideologically incoherent and oppotunistic Party. Buidling on the failure of Liberalism to build an ecomomically strong and modern Italy, Mussolini surgeto pwoer was seen as a source of relief by many Italains disnagaed frm politics and looking for a better future.

Duggan's work exxplores the failure of Fascism to deliver the modern, anti-materialistoc and ethical mass nationalism promised and the deepening cyncism of Italians. finally destroyed by the debt and disgrace if war, this books explains the lack of thorough purge of fascism, the attraction of Italian intellectuals to a very Italian forn of socialism and the relentless cynicism about psrty politics that shaped modern society,

[Chris Carswell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shows what can be done by an academic with access to primary sources. Very detailed explanation of how the Duce duped Italy in the chaos that followed the Great War. Each part of the unfolding story references the letters and diaries of the people and their love of the the Duce.