Mussolini, Benito

Mussolini's Italy: Life Under the Fascist Dictatorship, 1915-1945

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Mussolini's Italy: Life Under the Fascist Dictatorship, 1915-1945
R. J. B. Bosworth
Manufacturer: Penguin Press HC, The
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Mussolini
The Battle: A New History of Waterloo
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A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962 (New York Review Books Classics)
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ASIN: B000MR8TFO

The Fall of Mussolini: Italians and the War, 1940-1945

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The Fall of Mussolini: Italians and the War, 1940-1945
Philip Morgan
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 019280247X

Book Description

The dramatic story of Mussolini's fall from power in July 1943, illuminating both the causes and the consequences of this momentous event. Morgan shows how Italians of all classes coped with the extraordinary pressures of wartime living, both on the military and home fronts, and how their experience of the country at war eventually distanced them from the dictator and his fascist regime. Looking beyond Mussolini's initial fall from power, Morgan examines how the Italian people responded to the invasion, occupation, and division of their country by Nazi German and Anglo-American forces - and how crucial the experience of this period was in shaping Italy's post-war sense of nationhood and transition to democracy.

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A Priceless Historical Account By Il Duce Himself
If you want to know this man, look no further!!!!!!!!!
Simply the Best
Intriguing history, but little theory.
Mussolini: The self-made myth

My Rise and Fall
Benito Mussolini , and Max Ascoli
Manufacturer: Da Capo Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Mussolini's Italy: Life Under the Fascist Dictatorship, 1915-1945
Benito Mussolini: The First Fascist (Library of World Biography Series) (Library of World Biography)
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ASIN: 0306808641

Customer Reviews:

A Priceless Historical Account By Il Duce Himself.......2005-05-02

This book is actually a compilation of Benito Mussolini's memoirs set approximately 16 years apart: the first being dated c. 1928 only eight years after his Fascisti 'Black Shirts' had assumed power in Rome by plebescite; the second being dated c. 1944 when the Fascist party in Italy was able to retain power only with Germany's occupation and Mussolini's 'rescue' by German forces.

When it comes to Mussolini, most modern readers immediately compare him to Adolf Hitler even though they understand little of what brought fascism to Italy or why Mussolini was so well received at home and abroad. Contrary to what many believe, Mussolini never had a very high opinion of Adolf Hitler and tried desperately to form a political pact with France/England with regards to Italy's future: Mussolini remained opposed to Hitler because Germany was unified with Italy's arch-enemy, Austria: Mussolini formed the ill-fated axis alliance only at the last minute when he was unable to get the concessions he wanted and Germany formally declared war against France in 1940. It would be his demise as Mussolini and his party would lose power in Italy by 1943 and, instead of the great empire they had promised to the Italian populace, Italy had become a vassal state occupied by the German military: Mussolini himself being nothing more than Hitler's puppet and mouthpiece. Thus, through his memoirs, we can follow how he was a favorite defender of freedom against Boshevism in the 20s and 30s adored by the US and England, to becoming nothing more than Hitler's lapdog by 1943.

This is a very important book where, by his own words, one can measure the man for who he was. Unlike Hitler's rambling anti-semitic diatribe in 'Mein Kampf', Mussolini's papers address purely political and social questions adding with his rather pompous flair that he and his Fascisti are an indispensable to the formation and prosperity of the state. He explains why he was motivated to act and describes the political environment he found himself in fighting the socialist, communist, and capitalist interests in Italy. His memoirs are not only interesting from a historical perspective, but also from a political one in that they provide a lot of insight as to the events that were responsible for the development of fascist doctrines in Europe in that period of time.

If you want to know this man, look no further!!!!!!!!!.......2004-05-15

I will be brief,a man as large as life as Mussolini was , no one but he could write with his vast knowledge of the political turmoil that was slowly tearing Italy apart in the early 1920's.Too bad he came to Italy in the 20th century instead of the 21st!Getting involved with Hitler and his war gives Western writers an opportunity to demean this man.If you take the time to read this you will find the man to be both highly educated and relentless in his faith for the Italian people to move progressively into the 20th century.Buy this book!!!!

Simply the Best.......2003-02-20

one of the best book I have read.
You do not have to agree or disagree with Mr. Mussolini to enjoy this book. Because you can learn a lot about the will power, the determination, and the courage of the man.

Intriguing history, but little theory........2001-12-12

I bought this book on the belief that it would explain to me the very essence of Italian Fascism. Although some important themes and ideas of Mussolini's fascism were discussed, I was disappointed with the lack of detail and expansion. However, I was enthralled by Mussolini's elegant writing style.I found the Duce's view of his own history - however biased - very informing. It gives an intimate view of early 20th century Italy,and in particular, the mood of the Italian people(especially the war veterans). The book's two parts, the first written well before the Second World War and the second during the war, offer a stark comparison of the different outlooks on the world that Mussolini possessed - he was once popular and arrogant, then hated and bitter. The book offers an extraordinary opportunity to take a deep and intimate look inside Mussolini's soul, as well as a thorough - however biased - examination of Fascist Italy. A must for anyone interested in the Duce, Fascism's general themes or World War II in general.

Mussolini: The self-made myth.......2001-05-03

MY RISE AND FALL is actually two books written twenty years apart. MY RISE is an autobiography written in l928 when Mussolini was extremely popular. The introduction by United States ambassador Richard Washurn Child is laudatory, in fact, a hagiography that represents the conservative opinion of that day. To modern readers this view seems a bit grotesque but was widely held by many important people such as Churchill. Mussolini was admired, feared, and universally believed to have been a renaissance genius-exactly the image the dictator carefully crafted through the years of glory. He preened, strutted, intimidated and philosophied on the world stage until he met Hitler and was reduced to a pathetic secondary role as comic 'side-kick'. We now know the tragedy Mussolini inflicted upon his nation, but one can understand his seductive genius by reading him Mussolini, unlike Hitler, could write-and write well. His terse masculine prose ripples across the page reenforcing the image of a hard modern Caesar. Pithy epigrams such as: "throttled by the skinny hand of poverty "(p.86); descriptive images: "ferrets were sent out to smell into my life"(p.95); dramatic scenes like when Zaniboni attempted to kill him: "The bullets pass, Mussolini remains" (p.237);challenging appeals: "If I go forward, follow me; If I recoil, kill me; If I die, revenge me!" (p.238); as well as softer images "the authority of the state was a kitten handled to death". Il Duce was also a great actor who lived his various roles with such zest he believed them himself. Observe Mussolini: fighting a duel with broadswords, skiing bare-chested down the alps, flying an airplane, driving his red sports car with his beautiful mistress Claretta Pettaci, taking his horse over incredibly high hurdles, or playing with a lion. These images combined with the world stateman brokering the Munich Conference-he was the only one there that knew French, German and English-or negotiating the Concordant with the Vatican;along with the family man accompanied by Dona Rachele and his five handsome children made him the idol of his nation. He had restored respect to his nation. Or did he? One can well understand how intellectuals at first flocked to his banner, Nobel prize winners such as Luigi Pirandello, Guglielmo Marconi, and Enrico Fermi were members of his Academy; Giovanni Gentile, his minister of education; Conductor Arturo Toscanni a Fascist candidate; Curzio Malaparte a war correspondent; and even philosopher Bennedetto Croce, a bitter opponent, supported the Ethiopian War. True, many later deserted, Toscanni and Fermi to the United States, but many remained. THE FALL OF MUSSOLINI reveals the true man behind the myth. Actually, Mussolini only writes of a period of twenty-four hours, the day he was dismissed from the government, The bulk of the fall was written by Max Asoli, a critic of the man and his movement. In this section the curtain is stripped away revealing a timid little fellow manuvering a complex illusion-pyrotechnics that could not harm any one. The real Duce was a humbug-with ulcers... The really strong people in his life were his women: Clara Pettaci, Edda Ciano and most of all, Dona Rachele... Mussolini was more Napoleon III than Hitler, in fact Hitler was his nemesis, and Mussolini knew it! Il Duce first thought the Fuhrer was a degenerate but like a hypnotized rabbit would not flee in horror from the viper. The result was Mussolini's degregation and the negative verdict of history.

The Gospel According to John I-XII (Anchor Bible Series, Vol. 29)

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A Scholar for the People
Enthusiastically recommended
It is a truly remarkable book
Dissapointed
A solid, insightful and intelligent commentary.

The Gospel According to John I-XII (Anchor Bible Series, Vol. 29)
Raymond E. Brown
Manufacturer: Anchor Bible
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Gospel According to St. John: An Introduction With Commentary and Notes on the Greek Text

ASIN: 0385015178
Release Date: 1966-04-20

Book Description

In this first of three volumes on the writings of John (two on the Gospel and one on the letters of John), Raymond E. Brown introduces the reader to the beauty and complexity of the fourth Gospel. His translation of the Greek into ordinary English makes good common sense of the text. Patiently sifting through and weighing all the ancient sources and modern theories, Brown addresses with clarity the major issues surrounding the writings of John-questions of authorship, composition, date, and John's relation to the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke).

Unlike other commentaries on the Gospel of John, this one analyzes and presents the scholarly debates in a form that the interested layperson can appreciate. Whether discussing John's version of miracle stories found in the other Gospels, explaining the meaning of obscure Greek words, or pointing out the relevance of Jesus' words and deeds, Father Brown speaks to scholars and laypeople alike.

Raymond E. Brown, the foremost New Testament scholar in the U.S., is Auburn Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He holds over twenty honorary doctorates from Catholic and Protestant universities. He is author of over twenty-five books on the Bible, including the acclaimed volumes The Birth of the Messiah and The Death of the Messiah.

Customer Reviews:

A Scholar for the People.......2006-04-06

Raymond Brown is a rare combination of scholar and communicator. Few scholars can talk to ordinary people in an interesting way. This book goes into great detail, looking at almost every word and phrase in the gospel of John. Not only does Brown tell you his theory, but he shares the theories of other scholars. If you have the patience to slow yourself down and let Brown speak to you, you will be greatly rewarded with insight. If you have the time to reflect on what you read, you will be twice blessed. There may be more here than you want to know. I have just come to accept the fact that I will not get 10 to 20 percent of what Brown writes. I appreciate that though. He forces me to extend my mind. I would not expect anything less from the world's greatest authority on John.

Enthusiastically recommended.......2005-03-09

I have a particular fondness for two volumes of Raymond Brown' s commentary on John. There are like old friends that I have returned to over and over again through the years. They have been consistent and reliable and I appreciate both Brown's scholarly as well as pastoral view points.

The gospel of John presents a particular challenge to the interpreter. It is very different from the "synoptic" gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke). It doesn't follow the same dramatic outline and Jesus' words in John often seen so different from the first three gospels. And yet John has remained one ofthe most beloved gospels for laypeople and pastors alike.

It takes a sensitive scholar to weave through the complexities of this gospel without simply discarding everything as un-collaborated material (since it's not in the other gospels). Raymond Brown was such a scholar and this two-volume gem remains some of the best Johannine scholarship in our lifetime (I would include Bultmann in that small group as well).

True to the Anchor Bible format, Brown gives an exceptional, extensive Introduction that covers may of the historical, literary and theological challenges that confront the interpreter. The commentary section itself presents both a detailed analysis of the given text and a more broad interpretation section. Knowledge of the original Greek language is not necessary. To young pastors, students, church libraries, and even interested laypeople, I enthusiastically recommend this commentary.

It is a truly remarkable book.......2004-07-15

If you had to by one scholarly Commentary on the gospel of John, this is it. It is a truly remarkable book. What makes this commentary so good is that it appeals both to the scholarly and pastoral user. Let me explain. Many scholarly commentaries deal almost exclusively with issues of textual and form criticism. While helpful to the scholar, it just does not preach. While pastoral commentaries deal with preaching themes, they often lack scholarly insight into the text. Raymond Brown gives us the best of both. This is one commentary that stands the test of time.

Dissapointed.......2002-12-27

I have searched for months for a good commentary on the Gospel of John and it looks like the search continues. I got it based on the reviews I have seen on the book from readers. I guess its different strokes for different folks. I am more of a greek and indepth detials on new testament words. My type of commentary is the classic on Jude&Peter by Bauckham. I didn't get that type of exegesis from Brown.

A solid, insightful and intelligent commentary........2000-10-07

Raymond Brown is an incredible scholar and has presented one of the finest commentaries written on the gospel according to John. Both introductory notes and main commentary are fluid and reveal significant insight. The book is an absolute pleasure to read regardless of theological persuation and one does not get worn out with overly technical information found in other commentaries of this caliber.

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A good start but needs some more
Excellent
brilliant and delightful
Italian Nightmare
Interesting and problematic

Mussolini's Italy: Life Under the Fascist Dictatorship, 1915-1945
R. J. B. Bosworth
Manufacturer: Penguin Press HC, The
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1594200785

Book Description

From one of the greatest historians in the field, a vivid, brilliant history of Fascist Italy, rulers and ruled

life the period in which Italians participated in one of the twentieth century's largest, most notorious, and ultimately most ruinous political experiments-Fascism-under their dictator, Benito Mussolini, and his henchmen. The Fascists were the first totalitarians, and they provided a model for many other twentieth-century dictatorships, Hitler's first among them.

A regime based on a cult of violence and obedience, Fascism made immense demands on its subjects, killing many within Italy and its empire and ruining the lives of more. And yet one of R.J.B. Bosworth's most striking accomplishments is to show the gap that yawned between rhetoric and reality. Mussolini's Italy is lumped together with Hitler's Germany as a nightmarish totalitarian state that brutally reengineered an entire society. In fact, Bosworth argues, Fascism, though monstrous enough, had a far shallower impact on Italy because Italy was still such a traditional, undeveloped country, organized around family, tribe, and region, and because Italy's leaders were less ruthlessly ideological than the Nazis. Italians found many and ingenious ways of adapting, limiting, undermining, and ridiculing Mussolini's ambitions for them. The heart of this book is its engagement with the life of these ordinary Italians, struggling through terrible times.

Customer Reviews:

A good start but needs some more.......2007-03-31

Bosworth in his novel on Mussolini's Italy makes an effort to show how the fascist regime grew within the state and the extent to which it dominated the state. Fascism was not synonymous with Italian nationalism and Bosworth's explanations of the fascist growth lend credence to the idea that it was slow to take on. He categorizes fascism in various states and his most prevalent is the idea of a northern and southern fascism. This book also does an excellent job of showing how Mussolini's regime permeated the Italian state. The fascist ideals did meet significant resistance with the traditional liberals. The tough stance on labor and the opportunities for the church however drew many allies and allowed Mussolini to take power. One of the points lacking here is that the monarchy played a large role in his rise to power. I feel that Bosworth does not address that issue and I would like to have seen it done more.

Overall this is the best attempt we have on fascist Italy however this book could have been done better. It is incredibly ambitious and either should have been broken into two books or made one book longer. There is a lot of information that is glazed over very quickly leaving some holes in the analysis. If you want an introduction to fascist Italy this is a great place to start but I would not stop here. There are many rich ways to explore the topic and looks at Ray Mosley's Mussolini's Shadow or Dennis Mack Smith's biography of Mussolini are great additions. Understanding how the fascist regime impacted the state and the world make for interesting questions and is something anyone studying World War II should not miss.

Excellent.......2006-09-24

This is an ambitious and successful attempt to write the social history of Fascism. Italian Fascism, Bosworth reminds us, controlled Italy for almost a generation, a considerably longer period than the disastrous experiment of Nazi rule of Germany. How was Fascism experienced by Italians? To what extent did Fascism change Italy? What were the essential features of Fascist rule? What were the well springs of Fascism? Bosworth treats all these issues and more in this carefully documented and well written volume. Rather than pursuing these issues topically, Bosworth has organized this book chronologically. He begins with the nature of Liberal Italy and the experience of WWI, moves through the interwar period and the grim events of WWII, concluding with a concise but revealing chapter on postwar fascist movements. He weaves his topical themes into the narrative very well, providing considerable analysis and showing the historically dynamic nature of the Fascist experience. This combination of narrative and analysis is excellent.
Bosworth is particularly concerned with providing a balanced view of Fascist Italy. The Fascist state is often viewed popularly as a comic opera dicatorship. Bosworth shows well that Fascist Italy appears to be relatively benign only by comparison with Nazi Germany or the Stalinist Soviet Union. This oppressive dictatorship destroyed democracy and human rights in Italy, and by Bosworth's reckoning, was ultimately responsible for about 1 million deaths in Italy, the Balkans, and Africa. It was a police state in which millions of Italians were informing on each other, corrupting the quality of public life. At the same time, Bosworth addresses the "totalitarian" nature of the regime, a claim made by the Fascists themselves that they were remaking the Italian people. Due in large part to the actions of Fascist leaders themselves, this claim is shown to be a fraud. Fascist government itself exemplified the reliance on chains of patronage and clientage with its associated corruption typical of Italian society. Mussolini was quite content to compromise with powerful existing institutions like the Monarchy, the Papacy, and the Army. Bosworth shows very well the continuity the Fascist state had with the Liberal state it replaced and indeed, many of the crucial features of Italian Fascism appear to be extensions of some of the worst features of pre-WWI Italy.
Bosworth's work is careful, thoughtful, and presented extremely well.

brilliant and delightful.......2006-07-17

R.J.B. Bosworth, an Australian professor of Italian history, wrote a very well-received biography of Mussolini, and then agreed with a reviewer who suggested that Mussolini's era cannot be reduced to one man. This book is his answer to the void.

It's meticulously researched, extremely well-written, pulls no punches in describing the evil of Mussolini's regime but yet puts it into perspective by comparing it to the German and Russian strains of totalitarianism. He captures the opera buffa aspects of fascism quite well, the futility of much of the rhetoric and plans, the less than unanimous enthusiasm for fascism. He describes, for example, the career of an assiduous sycophant who wrote "The Imitation of Mussolini," an almost sacrilegious spin-off of a Kempis' "Imitation of Christ."

This is not a political screed in the guise of a history; it's refreshing to see him call John Cornwell's book "absurd." Nevertheless every so often one does glimpse that his critique of fascism is colored by his devotion to Anglo-Saxon political correctionism, as when he quotes a lieutenant in the Italian army noting that "Out of the sea, salt. Out of women, trouble," and deems this blatant misogyny. My time spent with peoples of the Mediterranean littoral lead to me suspect that this was less the fruit of misogyny than simply the flowery language used by both men and women in those cultures. Most tantalizing is his implicit and explicit description of how the administration of G.W. Bush is unabashed in associating with the spiritual and political heirs of Mussolini.

Italian Nightmare.......2006-06-23

This is a book that reflects R.J.B. Bosworth's remarkable skills as a researcher and his equally remarkable knowledge of Italy. It is a detailed and meticulous account of the rise and reign of the Fascist Party in Italy and its most internationally recognized figure, Benito Mussolini. The reader quickly learns that a number of figures, some admirable, some not, contributed a good deal to shape the course of Fascism both prior to and during Mussolini's dictatorship. Bosworth leaves no doubt about how corrupt and malevolent the Fascists were, but somehow he also leaves at least this reviewer with the impression that Fascist Italy was a cut the other major European totalitarian regimes of Nazi Germany and Communist Russia.

So is this a great book? Many informed people clearly think so, yet this reviewer has doubts. It is perhaps too concerned with the rise and contributions of individuals in the Italian Fascist movement and rather not concerned enough with the broader trends and currents that shaped or were shaped by that movement. Still it is worth anyone's time to read this book which is unflinching in its depiction of the Fascist Italy.

Interesting and problematic.......2006-03-09

Fascism first arrived in Italy in 1922. Fascism was a shadowy ideology that sprang out of socialist and futurist roots, however in its view socialism must be harnesed to the nation and instead of destroying business it must work with it. Mussulini's rise to power came about amongst the backdrop of communist agitation and communist terrorism, in a country gripped by chaos Fascism found a way in, and the 'liberal' government surrendered, seeing it as less of a threat than communism.

Fascism in Italy was not like the German version. Mussilini didnt order people killed, very few were arrested, and in the late 1920s Italy was admired both in Enland and France as a successful way to calm a chaotic, rebellious, angry society, the agitation and violence that was sweeping Europe at the time.

This book looks into the everyday life in Italy, the regime and the people. It is a very critical account of the italian regime and has no good points to say about it and in its summation makes some outlandish and incorrect claims. These are the major problems with this otherwise interesting read. First the book is totally mistaken about fascism in Italy and its role in defending the Jews. Mussolini and his army ruitinely saved Jews from the Nazis, from the French and from the Croatian Ustashe. Indeed Italians also saved the Libyan Jews from Arab nationalism and from Nazism. It was only after Mussilini was deposed in 1943 that the Germans murdered Rome's Jews. Also the survival of Italian fascism merely points to its benign nature. Many more people were murdered and executed by the leftist italian 'revolutionaries' between 1944-1946 than during the entire fascist dictatorship, showing the true nature of the leftist beast that Mussulini held the line against.

Seth J. frantzman

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the duce was almost always wrong
a leader who did much harm
Tedious work on a pathetic villian called Mussolini
This book missed by a mile
Mussolini, a fit leader for a nation of fascisti and mafiosi

Mussolini
R. J. B. Bosworth
Manufacturer: A Hodder Arnold Publication
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Mussolini's Italy: Life Under the Fascist Dictatorship, 1915-1945
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ASIN: 0340731443

Book Description

In 1945, disguised in German greatcoat and helmet, Mussolini attempted to escape from the advancing Allied armies. Unfortunately for him, the convoy of which he was part was stopped by partisans and his features, made so familiar by Fascist propaganda, gave him away. Within 24 hours he was executed by his captors, joining those he sent early to their graves as an outcome of his tyranny, at least one million people. He was one of the tyrant-killers who so scarred interwar Europe, but we cannot properly understand him or his regime by any simple equation with Hitler or Stalin. Like them, his life began modestly in the provinces; unlike them, he maintained a traditonal male family life, including both wife and mistresses, and sought in his way to be an intellectual. He was cruel (though not the cruellist); his racism existed, but never without the consistency and vigor that would have made him a good recruit for the SS. He sought an empire; but, in the most part, his was of the old-fashioned, costly, nineteenth century variety, not a racial or ideological imperium. And, self-evidently Italian society was not German or Russian: the particular patterns of that society shaped his dictatorship. Bosworth's Mussolini allows us to come closer than ever before to an appreciation of the life and actions of the man and of the political world and society within which he operated. With extraordinary skill and vividness, drawing on a huge range of sources, this biography paints a picture of brutality and failure, yet one tempered with an understanding of Mussolini as a human being, not so different from many of his contemporaries.

Customer Reviews:

the duce was almost always wrong.......2006-09-07

Richard Bosworth is an academic specialized in modern Italian history, who improbably teaches at the University of Western Australia. After reading his spin-off of this book, I decided to read this book.

Bosworth doesn't disappoint with this exceptionally well-written biography of one of the more unpleasant individuals to rule Italy. Anyone who was expelled from school for knifing a fellow student, who accepted foreign money for influencing his country's politics towards bringing it into a disastrous war, who didn't shy from using violence and murder to advance his political ends, who openly and flagrantly dishonored his marital vows, who used racial and religious animosities for political ends, and under whose command poison gas was used against Ethiopians cannot be a statesman, and ought have no place in politics. In this book the strong impression arises that Bosworth went out of his way to be fair to the "duce" but that there just was little that was flattering to be said for him. However, when Bosworth describes Preston's biography of Franco as "authoritative," and compares him to the other unelected European leaders of his time, I am not persuaded that Bosworth was as meticulously fair-minded.

Bosworth describes himself as a proud product of 1789, and writes that he is quite open to hearing criticisms that his politics color his historiography. I do believe this to be the case: Bosworth is quite willing to describe the pathology of the duce, but doesn't ponder why Italians were willing to tolerate such a loathsome individual as their leader. A possible explanation, whose omission is easily explained by Bosworth's unabashed identification with the fateful year of 1789, is that Italy was not so much a single country, as several countries which had uneasily been united during the Risorgimento. Milan and Turin were completely different from Sicily and Calabria, and the former Papal States between them were yet different again. Perhaps the Italians of his day were initially willing to let a demagogue and thug bind together "the Italies," to use Bosworth's words, because their country was far too heterogeneous to withstand the centrifugal forces democracy can unleash. I believe an approach more along the ideas of Edmund Burke would have far preferable to trying to force 1789 onto a rather fractured country. Better eight solid and slows steps forward than twelve rapid steps forwards and sixteen tortured steps backwards.

Bosworth writes that any historian of Italy must take pains to ensure that he doesn't absorb preconceived notions about Italy, and it is clear that Bosworth does his utmost to avoid this trap. I suspect that it is precisely in this endeavor, that Bosworth comes to the conclusion that if Italy had only been more like other liberal European countries, none of this would have happened. In my opinion, Italy was Italy, because it was different, and it would have been preferable not to try to overcome, but rather to make use of, Italy's differences.

I would strongly recommend this impressively-written and quite sobering look at Mussolini to anyone who can distinguish between Bosworth's laudable historiography and his less authoritative political views.

a leader who did much harm.......2005-12-12

Unlike most biographies, Bosworth's book actually starts from late in Mussolin's life, specifically his last 2 years alive 1944-45 and later resumes with Mussolini's birth and childhood and moves on to his adulthood as a teacher and writer and traces his political beginnings which were actually as a socialist. Later on it describes how Mussolini turned to fascism, gained power, and the prewar years and World War II. I was a little surprised at how much damage Mussolini did to Libya and Ethiopia as well as the magnitude of the killings of the local populations in those areas carried out by the Italians. The book includes a section of photographs as well as maps, footnotes, and bibliography. The last chapter even gives an account of the travels of Mussolini's corpse after he was executed and put on diplay in Milan. As much as this was a biography of Mussolini, it also seemed to be an analysis of fascism as a whole and how much harm that ideology and Mussolini were for Italy and the Italian people, as well as the above mentioned areas of Africa, and Europe. All in all, it was an interesting read, however, one can only pity the Italian people for having to put up with such poor, damaging, and detrimental leadership for such a long time, during an especially critical part of their history. I believe the fact that Mussolini is mentioned in the same breath with such a harmful leader as Hitler is indeed fitting and appropriate.

Tedious work on a pathetic villian called Mussolini.......2004-10-21

This book should have been better edited (to 200 pages), with its numerous typographical errors, and it comes across as more an attempt by the author to show off his knowledge of "Liberal" (pre fascist) Italy (it boggles the novice's mind as to what political beliefs marked one as a Futurist, syndicalist, Giolottian etc) than his insights into Mussolini as a bombastic philanderer, gangster politician, habitual liar, hollow pedant, lifelong coward ( he was discharged from the Army, as a conscript, not war vlounteer, after being wounded in the arse by an accidental grenade explosion in the barracks) and depraved knave.

Packed full of petty details and tedious to the extreme, whilst blissfully ignorant of the wider picture, we are bombarded with rubbish that Mussolini is cultivated in arts, music, philosophy, well versed in journalism, pedagogy,self taught and fluent in English, French and German (instead of being the typical village fool that he is) and that he has been vastly under estimated by contemporaries and historians alike.

The last years of Mussolini are barely covered in the book, which then digresses to random, irrelevant rantings on post war Fascism, and De Felice's monumental rubbish that tries to restore and repair the bruised reputation of Mussolini, as if he ever had one that matteed.

I recommend Denis Mack Smith penetrating and coincise biography on this ass of a man instead.

This book missed by a mile.......2004-04-30

Yet another feeble attempt by a so called authority on the subject to undermine Il Duce.What most of the author misses when he researches this man is he relies heavily on the revisionist version of Italys role in World War 2.What most of these historians fail to realize the grave state of Italy before Fascism came and saved it! The author does the usual run of the mill,low brow,liberal,communist,socialist stabs at Mussolini's life and taking shots at the Italian people as a whole.This is a typical interpretation of a man who tried to stop the flow of the Red tide of the 1920's that was threatening to envelop most of Europe.If you want to really know about Mussolini and Fascist Italy read:Mussolini My Rise and Fall/ Frogmens first battles(about the 10th light Flottila) and Italian Aces of World War 2.I have bought all three of these books from Amazon and they are very accurate with no revisionist slant.These books show the bravery and heroism with which the Italian people fought and died . Too bad more people accept the words of weak willed intellectuals than what the facts really show. AVANTI!!!!! GIOVENZZA!!!!!!

Mussolini, a fit leader for a nation of fascisti and mafiosi.......2003-06-12

Bosworth does a good job showing how shallow Mussolini really was. He believed in nothing and in everything. He was a disgrace but curiously just what the people of that peninsula called Italy, a "geographic expression" in Metternich's view, deserved. Mussolini is Godfather Corleone and Tony Soprano!

More might have been done to show how Mussolini with all his faults and few virtues was not really a rejection of the Risorgimento but its fulfilment. The Risogrimento was a fraud and so was Mussolini. His career was an Italian Soap Opera -- fitting for this very unserious people.

Mussolini: A Dictator Dies (World at War)
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Mussolini: A Dictator Dies (World at War)
G. C. Skipper
Manufacturer: Childrens Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: School & Library Binding

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ASIN: 0516047906

Hitler's Raid to Save Mussolini: The Most Infamous Commando Operation of World War II
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The Story of a Daring Commando Raid, Well Told

A well researched, insightful book

One Exploit of a Famous Commando

Hitler's Raid to Save Mussolini: The Most Infamous Commando Operation of World War II
Greg Annussek
Manufacturer: Da Capo Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0306813963
Release Date: 2005-08-23

Book Description

The first book to tell the incredible story of the most famous German commando operation of World War II-the dramatic and daring rescue of Benito Mussolini

The Allied invasion of Italy pressed on through the summer of 1943, the strutting dictator, Mussolini, was overthrown and imprisoned by his own people in a remote mountaintop resort. Furious at the turn of events, Adolf Hitler, Il Duce's sworn ally, promised to rescue Mussolini and restore the Rome-Berlin Axis.

On September 12, a small convoy of glider aircraft suddenly began crash-landing near the hotel-prison where Mussolini was held and German commandos poured out of the half-wrecked planes. The soldiers quickly overwhelmed the hotel and seized Mussolini, who had watched the drama unfold from a second-story window. "I knew my friend Adolf Hitler would not abandon me," said a grinning Mussolini to his rescuers.

Hitler's rescue of Mussolini was one of the most famous commando operations of the twentieth century and shocked a war-weary world. It was also the dramatic culmination of the bizarre relationship between Hitler and Mussolini-a relationship that had disastrous consequences for the globe.

In this vivid and lively narrative filled with drama, intrigue, action, and some of history's most notorious characters, author Greg Annussek recounts the dramatic story of Germany's secret six-week operation to find and rescue the prisoner Mussolini and restore him to power.

Customer Reviews:

The Story of a Daring Commando Raid, Well Told.......2006-10-08

Otto Skorzeny has long been remembered as the mastermind of the greatest commando raid of World War II, the German rescue of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini from "house arrest" in a remote mountaintop resort known as the Hotel Imperatore. On September 12, 1943, after several weeks of imprisonment by an anti-Mussolini faction of the Italian government airborne commandos landed in gliders, stormed the hotel, and spirited Mussolini away to Berlin. It was a daring raid, one for which Skorzeny gained much acclaim, but certainly not his only such operation. Rightly, author Greg Annussek tells the Skorzeny story, but he goes further by drawing in other important characters in the episode and noting the raid's role in the wider effort of the Second World War.

"Hitler's Raid to Save Mussolini" is a stimulating narrative history. It serves a useful purpose in highlighting "Operation Oak," as it was called, and helps to expand the general audience's knowledge of the subject. To his credit, Annussek delved deeply into the published literature on the subject, and fully references this book, although he does not mine unpublished primary source documents that might have broadened his study. Nonetheless, this is an excellent work, making accessible one of the most exciting commando operations of World War II.

A well researched, insightful book.......2006-01-11

At first I dismissed this book based on several reviews I had seen that seemed to elude to a poorly compiled, misleading story. It is not that at all.

While this book does discuss Skorzeny's role in the Gran Sasso raid, it takes a well researched view of the variety of players involved in the decision, planning and execution of Operation Oak from the times just before Mussolini's downfall up to the end of the war. I found this book to be well researched, with plenty of facts, insights and details presented. I thought the writing style was very comfortable, especially given the sensitivity of World War 2 writing and the shear volume of facts (and speculation) involved.

I whole-heartedly recommend this book to those interested in this famous raid, Fallschirmjagers, Skorzeny, War on the Italian Front, late war politics, and those who like a good factual, adventure story!

One Exploit of a Famous Commando.......2005-09-13

Otto Skorzeny is one of those bigger than life individuals that came out of World War II. Easily the most famous commando type to come out of the war, this book tells the tale of just one of his exploits, the rescue of Mussolini after the Italians had arrested and imprisoned him.

Hitler was furious at the Italians for treating his friend Mussolini this way. The answer was a dramatic rescue by Skorzeny. Called Operation Oak, a hand picked selection of German soldiers flew to the remote hotel where Mussolini was being held and then flew him out of Italy to Germany.

This incident is possibly the best known of Skorzney's exploits. Others include the attack on the Belgian fort Eban Emael, and after the war he broke out of an American POW camp and set up the ODESSA organization to assist in the escape of former SS men to South America.

Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini: Totalitarianism in the Twentieth Century (European History Series (Arlington Heights, Ill.).)

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An insightful overview of the three dictators.

Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini: Totalitarianism in the Twentieth Century (European History Series (Arlington Heights, Ill.).)
Bruce F. Pauley
Manufacturer: Harlan Davidson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 088295993X

Book Description

Like its predecessor, one of the most popular volumes in our European History Series, the second edition of Bruce Pauley's inventive work provides a unique interpretive comparison of the economics, propaganda, culture, and education and healthcare systems of all three forms of European totalitarianism. Punctuated by vivid portraits of the dictators' youths, early careers, personal relationships, management styles, and cults of personality, the second edition of this fascinating book features a greatly expanded photographic essay as well as a consideration of the very latest scholarship. This succinct and adept description of probably the most frightening phenomenon of the twentieth century remains ideal for use in courses on German, European, and World History. Its broad interdisciplinary scope also makes it an excellent choice of supplementary reading for courses in Government, International Relations, economics, sociology, women's studies, and ethics.

Customer Reviews:

An insightful overview of the three dictators........2003-07-15

This is a great overview of Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini. In this book Pauley takes the reader through the evolution of the totalitarian dictators. He starts of by defining the terms under which each ideology fell: Nazism, Marxism-Leninism, and Fascism. From here he shows the reader how each personality gained, maintained and relinquished power. The outline of the chapters adds to readability as well as allowing for comparison and contrast of the three previously mentioned persons. This is an important topic not only to learn about the absolute control that these three wielded, but how they managed to manipulate the masses into not only following them but in some cases actually loving them; as scary as that may seem. There are important lessons to be learned in this study and Pauley has some good insight to get one thinking about them.

Mussolini and the Origins of the Second World War, 1933 - 1940 (The Making of the Twentieth Century)

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Mussolini and the Origins of the Second World War, 1933 - 1940 (The Making of the Twentieth Century)
Robert Mallett
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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My Rise and Fall
Benito Mussolini: The First Fascist (Library of World Biography Series) (Library of World Biography)
The Conformist
Mussolini's Italy: Life Under the Fascist Dictatorship, 1915-1945

ASIN: 0333748158

Book Description

This new study re-examines the controversial debate on Fascist Italy's road to international conflict that has raged for six decades. The author's privileged access to until now unseen archival materials allows him to assess the ideological, geopolitical, domestic and strategic considerations that shaped Mussolini's alliance with Hitler, and his subsequent decision to wage war against Great Britain and France in June 1940.

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Rulers and Royalty

Rulers and Royalty