La mia vita

by Benito Mussolini, Richard Washburn Child (Ghostwriter), Silvio Bertoldi (Preface)

Mussolini, superata la crisi del delitto Matteotti, in Italia è considerato un nuovo Cesare, il suo potere è assoluto. Ma all'estero è solo un personaggio emergente: il primo uomo che ha "battuto il bolscevismo". È il 1928. Richard Washburn Child, ex ambasciatore americano in Italia, gli chiede di scrivere la sua autobiografia per il pubblico di lingua inglese: sarà il "biglietto da visita" internazionale del nuovo grande attore della politica. Suo fratello Arnaldo si occupa della prima stesura, il duce la corregge, il diplomatico-editore la fa pubblicare: prima a puntate sul giornale americano "Saturday Evening Post", poi in volume a Londra. Un successo editoriale: Mussolini ha ora un posto e un pubblico su un palcoscenico mondiale. Unica autobiografia del capo del fascismo, questo autoritratto rappresenta un'utile testimonianza per osservare dalla prospettiva dello stesso Mussolini il percorso che lo condusse all'acme del potere.

Genres: History, Biography, Politics, World War II, Italy, Autobiography, Nonfiction

216 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1928

About the author

Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian dictator who founded and led the National Fascist Party (PNF). He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 1943, as well as Duce of Italian fascism from the establishment of the Italian Fasces of Combat in 1919 until his summary execution in 1945 by Italian partisans. As dictator of Italy and principal founder of fascism, Mussolini inspired and supported the international spread of fascist movements during the inter-war period.

Reviews

[TC · Rating 4 out of 5]

This autobiography of Mussolini, written at the age of 45 some six years after he assumed power, is chock-a-block of minutia of the post-WWI Italian political scene, with many names and events now long forgotten, yet no doubt meaningful at the time to cementing his image as a decisive leader who ended the chaos of a discordant and weak democracy and "made the trains run on time." (The sycophantic forward by the then-US Ambassador to Italy is a great example of his cult of personality.) Despite it being called an autobiography, this really is more the story of his political life, with only a few moments at the beginning devoted to his childhood, and even then he discusses the politics of his parents. As such, then, it's more of a political treatise. The writing is crisp and strident and wholly unapologetic, exactly as you would expect.

Taking it out of the context of the things to come--such as his ignoble end being beaten to death and strung up by his legs by a crowd of the very communists and socialists he spends so much of this book lambasting--it's easy to see how people would be drawn to him and his clear vision for a strong Italy. Put into that context, though, I can't help wondering: "what's the real story behind these stories." (Of course he would say his opponents are just liars and exaggerators, but nearly a hundred years removed, history should act as clear-eyed judge, so maybe other books can answer that question for me.)

Unsurprisingly, there are only hints here at the oppressive side of Fascism, and he waves them away with rational-sounding justifications--the violence of the Black Shirts was really them just keeping the order that the weak democracy couldn't, fighting the violent anarchists; the shutting down of the opposition press was to rally the spirits of the Italian people and keep them from being depressed by discord; and so-forth. Yet despite his constant fist-shaking and chanting of the strength of Fascism for providing the best platform from which to grow a glorious Italian race, there is no real coherent political philosophy here. I'd hoped to better see the influence of the Italian Futurists, for example; but aside from Mussolini's love of aviation, I didn't. So I'm no clearer to understanding what Fascism was, really, other than a name for Mussolini's vision of how the country should be run. And maybe that's all it really was, and perhaps that explains why it died with him, unlike other forms of failed oppressive governments which still have adherents and sympathizers.


Still, it's fascinating to read, if you're at all interested in Twentieth Century history.

[Dr. Charu Panicker · Rating 2 out of 5]

1925 മുതൽ 1945 വരെ ഇറ്റലിയിലെ ഫാസിസ്റ്റ് സ്വേച്ഛാധിപതിയായി മാറിയ ഒരു ഇറ്റാലിയൻ രാഷ്ട്രീയ നേതാവായിരുന്നു ബെനിറ്റോ മുസ്സോളിനി. ഹിറ്റ്ലർ എന്ന പേരിനോടൊപ്പം തന്നെ പലപ്പോഴായി കേൾക്കുന്ന ഒരു ഏകാധിപതിയാണ് മുസോളിനി. യഥാർത്ഥത്തിൽ ഒരു വിപ്ലവസോഷ്യലിസ്റ്റും പത്രപ്രവർത്തകനും എഡിറ്ററും ആയിരുന്ന അദ്ദേഹം 1919-ൽ ഇറ്റലിയിലെ അക്രമാസക്തമായ അർദ്ധസൈനിക ഫാസിസ്റ്റ് പ്രസ്ഥാനം കെട്ടിപ്പടുക്കുകയും 1922-ൽ സ്വയം പ്രധാനമന്ത്രിയായി പ്രഖ്യാപിക്കുകയും ചെയ്തു. വംശഹത്യർക്കും കൂട്ടക്കൊലകൾക്കും കാരണമായിതീർന്ന ഭീകരപ്രത്യശാസ്ത്രത്തിനെ ന്യായീകരിക്കുന്ന പുസ്തകം.

[Pausonious · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would've been better if he wrote it himself and it wasn't a ghostwriting and interpretation affair. The autobiography itself is moreso a contemporary history of the Fascist rise in Italy's post-war turmoil, Mussolini sums this style of autobiography up best at the start of chapter VIII: "An existence wholly new began for me. To speak about it makes it necessary for me to abandon the usual form of autobiographic style. I must consider the organic whole of my governmental activity. From now on my life identifies itself almost exclusively with thousands of acts of government. Individuality disappears,. Instead, the person expresses. I sometimes feel only measures and acts of concrete character, these do not concern a single person; they concern the multitudes, they concern and permeate an entire people. So one's whole life is lost in the whole."
From the content of the whole book you would agree with Mussolini on his absolute absorption with his ideal, his goal. Only a few sentences or paragraphs here and there from Mussolini show day to day the living of a personal life, like mentioning his love of flight - though he ties this in with the growth of Italy's aeronautic endeavors also.
A good history book with some personality to it.

[Prabhat sharma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mussolini's autobiography : 1928 (Kinidle Edition) - autobiography- Date of Birth 29-07-1883 - The author was a politician, journalist, leader of National Fascist Party. According to the book, The Book depicts the life of Mussolini up to 1927. Whereas his historical role in participating in Second World War has not been covered. Mussolini was born on 29 July 1883 in Dovia di Predappio, a small town in the province of Forlì in Romagna. Later, during the Fascist era, Predappio was dubbed "Duce's town" and Forlì was called "Duce's city", with pilgrims going to Predappio and Forlì to see the birthplace of Mussolini. Benito Mussolini's father, Alessandro Mussolini, was a blacksmith and a socialist,[17] while his mother, Rosa (née Maltoni), was a devout Catholic schoolteacher.Benito was the eldest of his parents' three children. His siblings Arnaldo and Edvige followed. As a young boy, Mussolini would spend some time helping his father in his smithy. Mussolini's early political views were strongly influenced by his father, who idolized 19th-century Italian nationalist figures with humanist tendencies such as Carlo Pisacane, Giuseppe Mazzini, and Giuseppe Garibaldi. His father's political outlook combined views of anarchist figures such as Carlo Cafiero and Mikhail Bakunin, the military authoritarianism of Garibaldi, and the nationalism of Mazzini. In 1902, at the anniversary of Garibaldi's death, Mussolini made a public speech in praise of the republican nationalist. The conflict between his parents about religion meant that, unlike most Italians, Mussolini was not baptized at birth and would not be until much later in life. As a compromise between his parents, Mussolini was sent to a boarding school run by Salesian monks. After joining a new school, Mussolini achieved good grades, and qualified as an elementary schoolmaster in 1901.
1915-1918 In spite of having been allied to Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire since 1882, Italy eventually enters the war in 1915 on the side of the Allies, gaining several territories in the North-East, but bankrupting the country in the process. 1922 onwards  Benito Mussolini’s Fascist party comes to power and begins to expand overseas, conquering Ethiopia and Albania. Mussolini emigrated to Switzerland, partly to avoid compulsory military service. He worked briefly as a stonemason in Geneva, Fribourg and Bern, but was unable to find a permanent job. During this time he studied the ideas of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, the sociologist Vilfredo Pareto, and the syndicalist Georges Sorel. Mussolini also later credited the Christian socialist Charles Péguy and the syndicalist Hubert Lagardelle as some of his influences. Sorel's emphasis on the need for overthrowing decadent liberal democracy and capitalism by the use of violence, direct action, the general strike and the use of neo-Machiavellian appeals to emotion, impressed Mussolini deeply. Mussolini became active in the Italian socialist movement in Switzerland, working for the paper L'Avvenire del Lavoratore, organizing meetings, giving speeches to workers, and serving as secretary of the Italian workers' union in Lausanne. Angelica Balabanov reportedly introduced him to Vladimir Lenin, who later criticized Italian socialists for having lost Mussolini from their cause.[26] In 1903, he was arrested by the Bernese police because of his advocacy of a violent general strike, spent two weeks in jail, and was deported to Italy. After he was released there, he returned to Switzerland. In 1904, having been arrested again in Geneva and expelled for falsifying his papers, Mussolini returned to Lausanne, where he attended the University of Lausanne's Department of Social Science, following the lessons of Vilfredo Pareto. In 1937, when he was prime minister of Italy, the University of Lausanne awarded Mussolini an honorary doctorate on the occasion of its 400th anniversary. In December 1904, Mussolini returned to Italy to take advantage of an amnesty for desertion of the military. He had been convicted for this in absentia. Since a condition for being pardoned was serving in the army, he joined the corps of the Bersaglieri in Forlì on 30 December 1904. After serving for two years in the military (from January 1905 until September 1906), he returned to teaching. In February 1909, Mussolini again left Italy, this time to take the job as the secretary of the labor party in the Italian-speaking city of Trento, which at the time was part of Austria-Hungary (it is now within Italy). He also did office work for the local Socialist Party, and edited its newspaper L'Avvenire del Lavoratore (The Future of the Worker). Returning to Italy, he spent a brief time in Milan, and in 1910 he returned to his hometown of Forlì, where he edited the weekly Lotta di classe (The Class Struggle). According to the Book, Mussolini thought of himself as an intellectual and was considered to be well-read. He read avidly; his favorites in European philosophy included Sorel, the Italian Futurist Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, French Socialist Gustave Hervé, Italian anarchist Errico Malatesta, and German philosophers Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx, the founders of Marxism. Mussolini had taught himself French and German and translated excerpts from Nietzsche, Schopenhauer and Kant. During this time, he published "Il Trentino veduto da un Socialista" ("Trentino as seen by a Socialist") in the radical periodical La Voce.[36] He also wrote several essays about German literature, some stories, and one novel: L'amante del Cardinale: Claudia Particella, romanzo storico (The Cardinal's Mistress). This novel he co-wrote with Santi Corvaja, and it was published as a serial book in the Trento newspaper Il Popolo. It was released in installments from 20 January to 11 May 1910.[37] The novel was bitterly anticlerical, and years later was withdrawn from circulation after Mussolini made a truce with the Vatican. He had become one of Italy's most prominent socialists. In September 1911, Mussolini participated in a riot, led by socialists, against the Italian war in Libya. He bitterly denounced Italy's "imperialist war", an action that earned him a five-month jail term.[38] After his release, he helped expel Ivanoe Bonomi and Leonida Bissolati from the Socialist Party, as they were two "revisionists" who had supported the war. He was rewarded the editorship of the Socialist Party newspaper Avanti! Under his leadership, its circulation soon rose. The outbreak of the war had resulted in a surge of Italian nationalism and the war was supported by a variety of political factions. One of the most prominent and popular Italian nationalist supporters of the war was Gabriele d'Annunzio who promoted Italian irredentism and helped sway the Italian public to support intervention in the war. The Italian Liberal Party under the leadership of Paolo Boselli promoted intervention in the war on the side of the Allies and utilized the Società Dante Alighieri to promote Italian nationalism. Italian socialists were divided on whether to support the war or oppose it.[49] Prior to Mussolini taking a position on the war, a number of revolutionary syndicalists had announced their support of intervention, including Alceste De Ambris, Filippo Corridoni, and Angelo Oliviero Olivetti. The Italian Socialist Party decided to oppose the war after anti-militarist protestors had been killed, resulting in a general strike called Red Week. Mussolini initially held official support for the party's decision and, in an August 1914 article, Mussolini wrote "Down with the War. We remain neutral." He saw the war as an opportunity, both for his own ambitions as well as those of socialists and Italians. He was influenced by anti-Austrian Italian nationalist sentiments, believing that the war offered Italians in Austria-Hungary the chance to liberate themselves from rule of the Habsburgs. He eventually decided to declare support for the war by appealing to the need for socialists to overthrow the Hohenzollern and Habsburg monarchies in Germany and Austria-Hungary who he said had consistently repressed socialism. As Mussolini's support for the intervention solidified, he came into conflict with socialists who opposed the war. He attacked the opponents of the war and claimed that those proletarians who supported pacifism were out of step with the proletarians who had joined the rising interventionist vanguard that was preparing Italy for a revolutionary war. He began to criticize the Italian Socialist Party and socialism itself for having failed to recognize the national problems that had led to the outbreak of the war.[9] He was expelled from the party for his support of intervention. After being ousted by the Italian Socialist Party for his support of Italian intervention, Mussolini made a radical transformation, ending his support for class conflict and joining in support of revolutionary nationalism transcending class lines.[9] He formed the interventionist newspaper Il Popolo d'Italia and the Fasci Rivoluzionari d'Azione Internazionalista ("Revolutionary Fasci for International Action") in October 1914. His nationalist support of intervention enabled him to raise funds. These basic political views and principles formed the basis of Mussolini's newly formed political movement, the Fasci Rivoluzionari d'Azione Internazionalista in 1914, who called themselves Fascisti (Fascists) Mussolini's military experience is told in his work Diario di guerra. Overall, he totaled about nine months of active, front-line trench warfare. During this time, he contracted paratyphoid fever.[63] His military exploits ended in 1917 when he was wounded accidentally by the explosion of a mortar bomb in his trench. He was left with at least 40 shards of metal in his body. He was discharged from the hospital in August 1917 and resumed his editor-in-chief position at his new paper, Il Popolo d'Italia. He wrote there positive articles about Czechoslovak Legions in Italy. By the time he returned from service in the Allied forces of World War I, very little remained of Mussolini the socialist. Indeed, he was now convinced that socialism as a doctrine had largely been a failure. In the night between 27 and 28 October 1922, about 30,000 Fascist blackshirts gathered in Rome to demand the resignation of liberal Prime Minister Luigi Facta and the appointment of a new Fascist government. On the morning of 28 October, King Victor Emmanuel III, who according to the Albertine Statute held the supreme military power, refused the government request to declare martial law, which led to Facta's resignation. The King then handed over power to Mussolini (who stayed in his headquarters in Milan during the talks) by asking him to form a new government. The books mentions works done by him in this capacity. The readers are interested in knowing about the factors which led him to join Germany in Second World War and its aftermath. But these facts are not in this book. Still the book remains a historical document for researchers and historians.

[Julio The Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I am passionately Latin". Benito Mussolini. The original fascist, safely in power by 1929, ordered this ghost-written autobiography translated and published all over the world. (The ghost-writer seems to have been Mussolini's brother Arnaldo, editor-in-chief of the Fascist newspaper IL POPOLO DI ITALIA). The English translation was over seen by the U.S. Ambassador to Rome who was passionately pro-Mussolini and wrote the fawning Introduction. These political facts must be pondered before plunging into this slim volume of memoirs. There is very little autobiographical material in these pages and plenty of political bombast, just like the man himself. The Duce tells us what sign he was born under, hinting at the fact that he was deeply superstitious, and quickly glosses over his father's Anarchist politics and atheism. He brags about his fighting skills during his school days, Benito was quite handy with a knife, school teacher days (oddly, Mao was a school teacher too in his youth) and first exile abroad, "I set off with a medallion of Marx across my neck", jail time in Switzerland, a country he loathed, and his days as a corporal fighting the Austrians during World War I. For a man who was deeply intellectual and well-read he cites only one literary source for his doctrines, Gustav Le Bon's THE CROWD, from whom he took his motto in politics, not to mention sex life, "the crowd is a woman". The rest of MY LIFE is a paean to political violence, fascist-style, the rights of the state OVER the individual, and totomania, Mussolini's belief in total autocracy, total patriarchy, and "the cleansing effects of {total} war". Scary stuff, but he mobilized a whole nation behind him, and counted Pope Pius XI and Winston Churchill among admirers. During one brief moment, Mussolini stood on top of the world, and then he met Hitler. For a more personal document of Mussolini's thinking I strongly suggest his memoir ONE YEAR, published in English as THE FALL OF MUSSOLINI, a private diary of his days presiding over the Salo Republic; depressing but revealing in a way this autobiography could not be.

[Alexander Bragman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A splendid summary of Mussolinis route from a child to the Duce of Italy. Having read similar accounts by Germans from the same time period you can clearly see the same circumstances creating the same results; an unstable democracy lacking authority, a overpopulated country lacking resources, a lack of leadership among the leading classes and a response to the terroristic threat of bolshevism.

Mussolini feels like an adventurer caught in an injustice, the Italian fate after WWII. He is almost by fate lead through various impulses and faith in a haphazard way towards the march on Rome and the seizure of power. Recommended reading for anyone who wants to understand fascism and the reason for its popularity among the Italian people.

[Aboobacker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Benito Mussolini, the father of Fascism. As all hatred 'isms',Fascism too based on Nationalism. In fact Fascism can be considered as the father of all negative Nationalistic ideologies. Mussolini's disappointed childhood , routed him to create National Fascist Party, which came to power in Italy on 1922. He was 39 when he was Supreme power of the nation, first time. The Autobiography was written in 1928. His thoughts came to Action after World War - 1. He hated Socialists & Communists. But, he was in favour of Church & Vatican. The book is a reference to understand Fascism on founder's perspective.
-aboobacker s m

[Michael Goldsmith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fascists make for bad writers, once again.

Some interesting historical context, lots of recriminations, dehumanization and turning Fascists into victims of evil plots. As the introduction indicates, lots of use of the word "lonely" all things considered, but otherwise nothing is revealed about the man.

His Wikipedia article concerning this period is honestly more factually detailed, read that first and then read this if you're curious how he spins events.

[Marco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Libro ben fatto, abbastanza sintetico ma esauriente che spiega la vita e le scelte fatte.
Utile anche per comprendere il personaggio storico

[Anders · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting read to have insight into this time in history. Not difficult to read or understand.

[Domenico Francesco · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nota: nonostante in copertina delle varie edizioni di questo titolo venga messa in risalto la frase "Questa è la mia unica autobiografia" in realtà l'opera non è di Mussolini, ma è stata scritta in realtà dall'ambasciatore statunitense in Italia Richard Washburn Child, che, convinto filo-fascista, volle scrivere un'opera per meglio "pubblicizzare" Mussolini e le sue idee negli Stati Uniti quando ancora erano viste oltreoceano con una certa curiosità e quasi simpatia (l'anno di pubblicazione originale è il 1928). Washburn Child è riportato come editor e traduttore dell'opera insieme a Arnaldo Mussolini, fratello del Duce, ma l'opera venne in realtà scritta direttamente in inglese, originariamente pubblicata a puntata sul Saturday Evening Post e successivamente in volume (col titolo "My Autobiography) e uscì in lingua italiana (questa volta sì, in traduzione) solo nel 1971. Per quanto l'opera ebbe comunque l'approvazione di Mussolini, si basasse in parte su alcuni colloqui avuti da Washburn Child con Mussolini con materiale aggiunto da Arnaldo Mussolini e Margherita Sarfatti (all'epoca amante di Mussolini) l'opera apparirà non solo agli storici ma anche al lettore italiano più spassionato incongruente con diversi fatti storici dell'epoca ma di cui in America si sapeva ancora troppo poco per suscitare sospetti. Rimane un documento più che su Mussolini, su come una parte degli Stati Uniti dell'epoca vedesse Mussolini e l'idea che il regime volesse propagandare di sé oltreoceano.

Se si volesse leggere la VERA autobiografia di Mussolini bisogna cercare La mia vita dal 29 luglio 1883 al 23 novembre 1911 (spesso pubblicata come "La mia vita" anch'essa creando non poca confusione), antecedente a questa, in quanto venne scritta tra la fine del 1911 e l'inizio del 1912 mentre Mussolini stava scontando una pena nel carcere di Forlì per una manifestazione in opposizione all'intervento coloniale in Africa. Certo, un Mussolini ancora ben lontano dal diventare il Duce del fascismo ma di sicuro un'opera reale, più genuina e, nonostante l'epoca della stesura, già molto illuminante sulla sua personalità, il suo carattere e sulla sua vita.

[Shaun Appleby · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wrong edition.