Mussolini in Myth and Memory

Reviews / Votes

Elegant and well-argued ... Corner's dissection of Fascism, its rhetoric and legacy, is trenchant and highly readable * Phil Cooke * Timely, balanced, succinctly argued and thoroughly convincing. * Tony Barber, Financial Times * Timely * Timothy Garton Ash, Financial Times * Enlightening * The Economist * A brilliant book * Robert Fox, Evening Standard * Paul Corner has authoritatively shown [that the] history of the Italian dictatorship was based on violence, corruption, and calamitous inadequacy in fighting Italy's Second World War (as the "ignoble second" of Adolf Hitler and his Nazis). * Richard Bosworth, History Extra * If you want to get a better understanding of the rise, fall and persistence of fascism this is a good book to start with. * Tim Brinkhof, New Humanist * A fluid, engaging read for the lay person that reawakens an Italy that will be far less familiar than the last holiday taken in Tuscany. * Richard Lofthouse, QUAD * A warning, a revelation, a profound study of the realities of dictatorships which with time, can merge into acceptable and appealing myth. * Margaret Graham, Frost Magazine * A balanced picture of Benito Mussolini and of the regime that he led. A seasoned scholar in this field, Corner expertly balances the task of chipping away at the accretion of falsehoods and forgetfulness, while not rushing to the opposite extreme by simply subsuming Italian fascism into the broader history of fascist movements. * John Foster, The Battleground * Written with admirable lucidity and assured knowledge * Sean McGlynn, Quadrant * A vital corrective to the quicksand of Fascist revisionism, where nothing is solid and all debate is sucked downwards into 'whataboutery'... this great academic take-down allows the reader to see and understand the tricks that [Mussolini] is still, posthumously, playing on the Italian people. * Tobias Jones, Engelsberg Ideas * This book could not be more timely. * Francis Ghiles, ESGlobal * No one knows more about Mussolinian Fascism than Paul Corner does. In this succinct but magisterial account, Corner gives clear-sighted judgment on Mussolini's brutality, failures and fraud. He simultaneously displays the foolishness and error of that memory, especially within Italy, which is still inclined to see the Duce as well-meaning or effective. * Professor R.J.B. Bosworth, Emeritus Fellow, Jesus College, University of Oxford * A timely and astute account of how the fallibilities of memory have underwritten the rehabilitation of Fascism and Mussolini in contemporary Italy. Corner issues an eloquent plea for the obligation of history to correct the selective amnesias and seductive myths that are eroding the violent reality of past dictatorships. * Jane Caplan, Emeritus Professor of Modern European History, University of Oxford * As one of the foremost scholars of the Fascist era, Corner (emer., Univ. of Siena, Italy) is perhaps the best person to contextualize and destroy the many misconceptions regarding Benito Mussolini. * Choice * The volume offers a rich and compelling perspective, which helps to reflect on how, at a time of crisis in democratic institutions, even clearly failed experiences of the past, as well as violent and totalitarian ones, can acquire a new aura through the experience of the present crisis. * Giulia Albanese, American Historical Review *