Richard J. B. Bosworth
Auteur de Mussolini's Italy: Life Under the Fascist Dictatorship, 1915-1945
A propos de l'auteur
Œuvres de Richard J. B. Bosworth
The Cambridge History of the Second World War Volume II: Politics and Ideology (2015) 24 exemplaires
Explaining Auschwitz and Hiroshima : history writing and the Second World War 1945-1990 (1993) 18 exemplaires
The Italian Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives in the Interpretation of Mussolini and Fascism (1998) 13 exemplaires
Italy the Least of the Great Powers: Italian Foreign Policy Before the First World War (1979) 6 exemplaires
Italian Fascism: History, Memory and Representation (1999) — Directeur de publication — 3 exemplaires
Benito Mussolini and the Fascist destruction of liberal Italy, 1900-1945 (Rigby topics in modern history) (1973) 2 exemplaires
Claretta: Mussolini's Last Lover 1 exemplaire
Oeuvres associées
Étiqueté
Partage des connaissances
- Date de naissance
- 1943-12-07
- Sexe
- male
Membres
Critiques
Prix et récompenses
Vous aimerez peut-être aussi
Auteurs associés
Statistiques
- Œuvres
- 22
- Aussi par
- 1
- Membres
- 768
- Popularité
- #33,143
- Évaluation
- 3.5
- Critiques
- 12
- ISBN
- 70
- Langues
- 4
Mussolini’s prominence in such pivotal historical events has ensured him a good deal of attention from historians and biographers, giving readers interested in learning about his life a range of approaches and perspectives from which to choose. Among the best of these options is Richard Bosworth’s study of Mussolini and his time. In it he sifts through the propaganda-fueled myths and anti-fascist criticisms to provide an account of his controversial subject that examines critically his political views, the nature of his regime, and his responsibility for the decisions that brought Italy to ruin in the 1940s. It’s one that favors analysis over description, which its key to its value as a work on its subject.
This focus becomes apparent in the early chapters, in which Bosworth describes Mussolini’s childhood and education within the context of the times. Growing up in the Romagna, young Benito was raised in a crowded household. Seeking to avoid his country’s mandatory military service, he emigrated to Switzerland, where he worked odd jobs in construction before taking advantage of a general amnesty for draft dodgers. Though Mussolini was qualified as a schoolteacher it was politics which engaged his interest, and he had established himself as an activist and newspaper for the socialist cause in the years leading up to the First World War.
The war in Europe precipitated Mussolini’s break with the socialist cause. While most Italian socialists opposed the war, as the editor of the Socialist newspaper Avanti! Mussolini soon came out in favor of Italian intervention. Expelled from the Socialist Party, Mussolini soon embraced other heretical ideas, and when Italy joined the war in 1915 Mussolini soon enlisted for the fight. Bosworth’s coverage of Mussolini’s wartime service is disappointingly thin, as he focuses more on Mussolini’s political evolution during this period rather than on his activities in uniform. It’s a choice that embodies both the strengths and weaknesses of Bosworth’s approach to covering his subject’s life.
In some ways Mussolini’s nationalistic disaffection with the socialists’ opposition to the war anticipated the general malaise effecting postwar Italian politics. In this respect he and the fascist movement were ideally positioned, combining as they did the rejection of both the status quo of Liberalism and the socialist alterative. Yet Bosworth stresses the continuities between the fascist regime and its predecessors. For all of his revolutionary talk, Mussolini did little to disrupt the underlying status quo of power, relying on similar systems of clientage and patronage that has characterized Italian politics for decades. Though fascists now dominated Italian government, their rule proved far less vicious than those who were inspired by Mussolini’s example to establish similar regimes throughout Europe.
In part because of this Mussolini soon found himself struggling to maintain his position at the forefront of European politics. Initially as willing to confirm to the international status quo as he was the domestic one, the unraveling of the Versailles settlement created opportunities too tempting to resist. Realizing them increasingly tied Mussolini’s regime to Nazi Germany, which soon reduced Italy to the status of a junior partner. The even more ill-advised decision to join the Second Word War on Hitler’s side soon exposed the hollowness of the Italian military and the superficiality of the changes the fascists had wrought on Italy. By the time he was dismissed as prime minister Mussolini was a rapidly aging shell of his former self, soon to become little more than a figurehead for a war that would only bring further misery to the country he had once governed.
As a prominent scholar of modern Italy, Bosworth brings a social historian’s perspective to understanding Mussolini and his legacy. This proves a valuable asset in describing his subject’s background and the broader effects of his regime, as context and consequence are never far from his consideration. Yet Bosworth often takes his readers’ familiarity with Italian history and the fascist movement for granted, leading him to gloss over the background to the events he covers. Often key personalities are introduced by their last names only, with their roles and importance only hinted at. Not only can this blunt the point that Bosworth is making, it unnecessarily limits the audience for his book. This is particularly unfortunate, for while some may get lost in the flurry of names and passing references to other events in Italian history, those who persist will benefit enormously from Bosworth’s sharp analysis and persuasive assessment of his subject. While this may not be a biography of Mussolini for beginners, it is one no English-language reader who wishes to understand him can ignore.… (plus d'informations)