WHILE THE ECONOMIC SITUATION WAS DIRE, a larger, messianic narrative of hope and national greatness was unfolding. Mussolini and his Fascist Party looked at Italy as little more than the clay out of which a great future nation was to be formed. Their model was clear: like the futurist poet Filippo Marinetti, they wanted nothing less than to restore the grandeur of the Roman Empire, a proud, warlike, powerful country celebrating virility and violence. Contemporary Italians, Il Duce believed, were too soft, too craven, and too cowardly to be capable of creating a great civilization. To build a
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