This controversial and groundbreaking study proposes a compelling reinterpretation of the political thought of one Italy's founding fathers, Giuseppe Mazzini (1805-1872), and in the process suggests a new approach to understanding the origins of fascist ideology.

Giovanni Gentile (1875-1944) was the major theorist of Italian fascism, supplying its justifi cation and rationale as a developmental form of dictatorship for status-deprived nations languishing on the margins of the Great Powers. Gentile's "actualism" (as his philosophy came to be called) absorbed many intellectual currents of the early twentieth century, including nationalism, syndicalism, and futurism. He called the individual to an idealistic ethic of obedience, work, self-sacrifi ce, and national community in a dynamic rebellion against the perceived impostures of imperialism. This volume makes available some of his more signifi cant writings produced shortly before and after the Fascist accession to power in Italy.

THE “march on Rome” of October 28th, 1922, marked the advent to power of the Fascist Party in Italy under the leadership of Benito Mussolini. The seizure of the government through a coup d’état was justified by the claim that Italy had to be rescued from the imminent danger of a Bolshevist revolution. Before the eyes of a world horrified by the tragedy of Russia, Italian Fascism assumed the role of the knightly Saint George who had slain the red dragon of Communism. The legend appealed to the imaginations and soothed the fears of all the good people of Europe and America. It became the sacred myth around which was woven the early Fascist propaganda. In the present book the reader will find hard facts, not vague legal formulæ; concrete realities, not abstract doctrines. Its purpose is to provide the English-speaking public with accurate information not about the whole economic, social, and political system of the Fascist dictatorship, but about one single phase of it, i.e. those institutions through which Fascism claims to have solved the problem of the relations between capital and labour.

This full-length biography of 19th-century Italian patriot and revolutionary Giuseppe Mazzini, arguably the key figure in Italian unification, explores the relationship between the person and the ideas. Sarti presents a Mazzini who anticipated many issues of our times, including the usefulness and limitations of national states in the international community, the need to integrate the masses in society, and to balance individual freedom with social duties and obligations. But, as Sarti makes clear, Mazzini defies easy classification because of his determined efforts to reconcile opposites and strike a balance between extremes. In pursuing his goals, Mazzini developed an extremism of his own characterized by moral intransigence and faith in the superiority of spirit over matter. Religion was at the core of his creed, but it was a highly individual religion that conformed to no established theology or norms. Mazzini lived his politics like no other figure of his generation; his power was based largely on the power of example. Although a tireless organizer, his talents were essentialy those of the publicist. The appeal to conscience, the cult of martyrs, and the cultivation of an image of victim were part of his highly personal recipe for power. Sarti presents a Mazzini with virtues and defects, strengths and weaknesses, prophetic insights and hallucinations. A major study important to all scholars and researchers of nationalism and modern Italian history.

This controversial and groundbreaking study proposes a compelling reinterpretation of the political thought of one Italy's founding fathers, Giuseppe Mazzini (1805-1872), and in the process suggests a new approach to understanding the origins of fascist ideology.