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Exporting Fascism: Italian Fascists and Britain's Italians in the 1930s
How did Italians living in Britain respond to Mussolini's fascism? What links did ex-pat fascists forge with the British Right? To what extent did Italophilia exist in Britain during the Mussolini years? Exporting Fascism addresses these questions, which have long been ignored by historians. While there is much material available about Nazi sympathizers in the United Kingdom, there is comparatively very little about Italophile fascist sympathizers. The author uncovers the policy of Mussolini's government to transform Italian communities abroad into 'little Fascist Italies'. Ambassador Dino Grandi had great success in the fascistization campaign of Italian emigrants through such means as Italian community newspapers and fascist summer camps and schools. The author also examines the links forged between Italian fascism and the British Right. Specifically, she uncovers the Italophilia that dominated the British Union of Fascists (BUF) in the first half of the 1930s, later to be replaced with an admiration for National Socialism. She also examines the BUF's activities within Italy, which have thus far remained almost entirely unknown. Exporting Fascism sheds new light on a neglected aspect of the international fascist movement at the dawn of the Second World War.
224 pages, Paperback
First published April 17, 2003
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April 8, 2012
I read this as an ebook through the service ebrary, which will influence my review. Ebrary's interface is not especially dynamic and only lets you look at a single page, which makes it hard to navigate and check references (especially when, as in this case, they are printed as endnotes at the end of each chapter), or use the index. It does have a very good underlining and note-taking system, but I suspect that all of my valuable annotations will be lost when I leave my current institution.
That aside, this is a middling-fair book that takes an unusual look at a familiar subject. British Fascism is reasonably well-studied, but what is new about Baldoli's book is that it does not focus on native-born British fascists, but rather on the fascist movement's efforts at making inroads in the Italian immigrant community in Great Britain. This is a very small community, of only a few thousands of people, but Baldoli makes a claim that it was significant to Italian diplomacy and to understanding the ways in which fascism was “exported” or sold as a universally-applicable system in countries outside of Italy.
Much of the focus is on Dino Grandi, who was ambassador to Great Britain from 1932 to 1939 (the start of the War), and who was intimately connected with the local Italian-based fascist organizations, and also assisted in channeling Italian funds to the home-grown British Union of Fascists under Oswald Mosely. As such, much of the book reads as diplomatic history, and at times seems to lose track of the human beings within the story. This is especially disappointing in a book about such a small community. We often look at them from an eagle’s eye-perspective, with only reports written by a socialite about what the grocers and waiters he represents are thinking and feeling.
Baldoli does bring to light one group of native-born Brits who played an important role in trying to “sell” fascism in England and are generally overlooked. These are the “Italophiles,” by and large a wealthy and socially respected group of intellectuals and socialites who had visited Italy and romanticized it, and were sympathetic not so much to the system of authoritarianism, but to the dream of a Roman renaissance. They promoted “corporativist” schemes in Britain but did not support undermining parliamentary democracy. In bringing them to light, Baldoli has performed a useful service.
Unfortunately, Baldoli is not as good at addressing existing debates in literature about British Fascism. She fails to cite many of the most important authors on the subject, and where she does (as in the case of Richard C Thurlow), she is inexcusably dismissive and lazy in her analysis of his work. Similarly, Girffin’s notion of “palingenesis” is treated as a throwaway phrase, and not used critically. Thurlow, surprisingly, and to his credit as a scholar, overlooked these slights in his glowing review of the book.
Overall, this book is worth looking at for specialists and completists in fascist studies, but not something which general readers or those with a passing interest will benefit much from reading.
That aside, this is a middling-fair book that takes an unusual look at a familiar subject. British Fascism is reasonably well-studied, but what is new about Baldoli's book is that it does not focus on native-born British fascists, but rather on the fascist movement's efforts at making inroads in the Italian immigrant community in Great Britain. This is a very small community, of only a few thousands of people, but Baldoli makes a claim that it was significant to Italian diplomacy and to understanding the ways in which fascism was “exported” or sold as a universally-applicable system in countries outside of Italy.
Much of the focus is on Dino Grandi, who was ambassador to Great Britain from 1932 to 1939 (the start of the War), and who was intimately connected with the local Italian-based fascist organizations, and also assisted in channeling Italian funds to the home-grown British Union of Fascists under Oswald Mosely. As such, much of the book reads as diplomatic history, and at times seems to lose track of the human beings within the story. This is especially disappointing in a book about such a small community. We often look at them from an eagle’s eye-perspective, with only reports written by a socialite about what the grocers and waiters he represents are thinking and feeling.
Baldoli does bring to light one group of native-born Brits who played an important role in trying to “sell” fascism in England and are generally overlooked. These are the “Italophiles,” by and large a wealthy and socially respected group of intellectuals and socialites who had visited Italy and romanticized it, and were sympathetic not so much to the system of authoritarianism, but to the dream of a Roman renaissance. They promoted “corporativist” schemes in Britain but did not support undermining parliamentary democracy. In bringing them to light, Baldoli has performed a useful service.
Unfortunately, Baldoli is not as good at addressing existing debates in literature about British Fascism. She fails to cite many of the most important authors on the subject, and where she does (as in the case of Richard C Thurlow), she is inexcusably dismissive and lazy in her analysis of his work. Similarly, Girffin’s notion of “palingenesis” is treated as a throwaway phrase, and not used critically. Thurlow, surprisingly, and to his credit as a scholar, overlooked these slights in his glowing review of the book.
Overall, this book is worth looking at for specialists and completists in fascist studies, but not something which general readers or those with a passing interest will benefit much from reading.
Displaying 1 of 1 review