Blood and Power: The Rise and Fall of Italian Fascism

by John Foot

A major history of the rise and fall of Italian fascism: a dark tale of violence, ideals and a country at war.

In the aftermath of the First World War, the seeds of fascism were sown in Italy. While the country reeled in shock, a new movement emerged from the chaos: one which preached hatred for politicians and love for the fatherland; one which promised to build a 'New Roman Empire', and make Italy a great power again.

Wearing black shirts and wielding guns, knives and truncheons, the proponents of fascism embraced a climate of violence and rampant masculinity. Led by Mussolini, they would systematically destroy the organisations of the left, murdering and torturing anyone who got in their way.

In Blood and Power, acclaimed historian John Foot draws on decades of research to chart the turbulent years between 1915 and 1945. Using the accounts of real people - fascists, anti-fascists, communists, anarchists, victims, perpetrators and bystanders - he tells the story of fascism and its legacy which still, disturbingly, reverberates to this day.

Genres: History, Italy, Nonfiction, Politics, European History, World War II, Audiobook

352 pages, Hardcover

First published June 9, 2022

Reviews

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a serviceable account of the "rise and fall" of Italian Fascism, but it is heavily weighted towards certain subjects. It often reads like a martyrology of the Italian left, which makes sense up to a point, but the people killed in Ethiopia, Libya and the Balkans are given very little attention by comparison. I almost wonder if the book was originally conceived as a discussion about political violence in Italy, and ballooned into something bigger. The chapter on the minute details of Mussolini's death also doesn't add much to the overall narrative. The Second World War itself is given a very brief overview. If you are looking to find out how the fascist state worked, what the details of the ideology were, or why so many Italians found it attractive, this probably isn't the book for you.

[Thomas Carmichael · Rating 3 out of 5]

A disappointing read.

This book purports to be a full history of the rise and fall of Italian fascism, yet almost half the book is taken up with the comings and goings of the left and the anti-fascist movement in pre-fascist Italy and what was done to them by the regime in the first 3 or so years after the March on Rome.

We learn little of the fascist movement in the years up to Mussolini taking power, barely more than a Wikipedia-level explanation of how they took power and consolidated it (beyond reams upon reams of detail of them beating up, imprisoning, and exiling anti-fascists), and scant detail of what the regime did during its early years in power.


Only once the anti-fascists have been well and truly routed do we finally turn to what the regime did from that point on, and even here Foot doesn't dig into the real detail of it as much as he should have.

Don't get me wrong, the story of the Italian Anti-Fascist movement is both interesting in its own right and a crucial part of the overall story of Italian Fascism, and many of the individual stories of the bravery of anti-fascist activists and the personal loss they suffered for their efforts are both inspiring and heartbreaking, but this book focuses on it to the point of neglecting all else and one is left with the feeling that this is where Foot's heart really lies and that he should probably have just written a book dedicated solely to this aspect of the period.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up as I've developed a bit of an interest in Italian political history after reading Ferrante's novels and realising how little about it I know! This book hits the sweet spot between providing a comprehensive history and remaining accessible to broader audiences. It is an engaging and rigorous examination of the rise and fall of fascism in Italy, and I found Foot's emphasis on the role of violence in fascism's rise particularly interesting.

[Mark Kamphuis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Socialism played a major role in the birth of Italian fascism. From the beginning, socialists have been, and for a long time remained the main target for fascist violence. It is therefore important to pay to it its due attention. However, when a book of this size is overflowing with these (arguably, overly)detailed stories about highly specific socialists figures, whose relevance to the course of the actual history it pretends to portray is questionable (to say the least), you would expect the book to be at least 10 times it’s size in order to even try to pay equal attention to all of the rest.
I’m not saying that these stories were not important or interesting, but the great majority of its supposed subject matter is completely glanced over. The book deals explicitly with fascist violence and oppression, which most with some interest and knowledge in history are already very familiar with.

TLDR: Not a bad read per se, but not at all delivers what it promises.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid skim through 20 odd years of Italian fascism. A great starting point for study. Draws some interesting parallels with contemporary politics.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up wanting to know more about the rise of fascism in Italy. The early disclaimers warned me I might not be getting bits in this book I'd be interested in, and be warned it pointedly avoids details of the 2nd Italo-Ethiopian War and the 2nd World War. With that said, it does go in on how the fluid boil of Italian politics pre-and post WW1 set the stage for Italian Fascism. The fascinating part is to see how quickly and easily many socialist radicals (including Mussolini himself) rapidly changed sides and became even ardent fascists. The two 'red years' followed by the two 'black years' is quite a ride indeed with many informative stories. Foot is blunt about the role violence and murder played in the rise of the fascists and their seizure of power in 1921. The fact they were aided by sympathetic actors within the Italian state (including the 'soldier king',Victor Emmanuel) helps explain things, but the rapidity of a country that elected socialists to power only to see fascists seize it in the streets a scant 2 years later is still astonishing. The fact that it happened because basically 20% of the electorate were utterly unwilling to accept the results of that election and openly engaged in violence and terrorism to overturn them is chilling indeed. Chilling still more so as it succeeded with the inaction of those who might have stopped it. Dispelled too are the myths of 'the good Italians' in the war, and the fact that Mussolini on!y enacted his racial laws under duress.
The frustrating part is that while we get a lot of details on theater bombings, failed assassins who tried for Il Duce, and the March on Rome, I find other key questions and issues unexplored. Like why did Mussolini lead it (from afar of course) and not Italo Balbo? Or Gabriele D'Annunzio? Both get time and space in the book but I'm not at all clear on why Mussolini became the leader of the movement (maybe because he had the newspaper?). Similarly, it seems an all too quick slide from the fascist racial laws in 1938 to suddenly its 1943 and the Fascist Grand Council is voting Mussolini out of power. 'Blood and Power's pace is a bit uneven, as is sometimes the scope.
Copious detail is given to Mussolini's execution, and to the aftermath. But that begins to make sense as Foot points out just how little reckoning Italy did with its fascist past for so long. As in many other places, it was easier to bury the past and rewrite (or entirely omit) history than undergo the painful cleansing and see justice done.
I did enjoy the book and it answered many questions, but I'm looking for other materials to fill in the gaps.

[Sheline · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book, unfortunately, doesn't go deep into explaining how and why Italian fascism came to power and how it failed during the WWII. It's an enumeration of, primarily violent, accounts and events that have a link with the fascist regime and/or its followers. It leaves a lot of questions unanswered and interesting phenomena unexplained. The structure of the book is chaotic which doesn't help. Foot often includes lengthy digressions and entire chapters filled with detailed accounts of socialists/anti-fascists that are brutally murdered by fascists/squadristi. He skipped important explanations or analyses after unexpected events such as the king just allowing the fascists to March on Rome in 1922. And on what premises is the statement that Jews are more likely to support fascist ideology based? I also missed any remarks on the most important of all questions: why do so many people fall for fascism?

On the other hand, there are quite some fascinating descriptions of peoples lives and encounters and occasionally things are explained (although, briefly). The topic of the book is immensely important and interesting and it's very alarming how many methods of Italian fascists I recognise in contemporary regimes and certain political parties. We need to be aware of that and find a way to stop fascist revival. This book is obviously focused on Italian Fascism during the period of 1915-1945. Overall, it's a valuable yet verbose book on Italian fascism, but it doesn't entirely deliver what it promises. Or what we need to learn about the subject.

[Milli · Rating 4 out of 5]

so scary so horrifying but i've really enjoyed studying fascist italy
can't wait to read history books for my own interest now i've FINISHED A HISTORY DEGREE

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. First 150 pages or so are quite uninteresting. Basically Foot just sums up a list of fascist attacks. After it gets more interesting, but that's maybe also because the history itself gets more interesting. Still this book provides a lot of the what (yet without going very deep into all subjects) and not very much of the why, which can make you feel a bit unstatisfied at the end. This is a book you could read if you wanted to learn more about fascism - but there's probably a better one out there.

[Tim Cahalan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic read, well written. Couldn't put it down and finished it within 48 hours

[Erik Empson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a frustrating read and a struggle to finish. My summary judgement is that the author is not actually interested in the rise of fascism, and how or why it comes into being. Having spent a fair amount of time reading it, and not wanting to squander too much more criticising it, regrettably I haven’t taken the time to write a concise review.
The book falls short on quite a few basic levels that one might reasonably expect from the genre, or the title. The most egregious is that, despite using the word “fascism” in almost every sentence, I don’t believe the author even once gives a definition of what he means by it. Nor is there any actual description, apart from piecemeal allusions, of what fascist ideology and politics entailed. The lack of elucidation here is terrible, not least because fascism is actually very difficult to define. A book subtitled “The rise and fall of Italian Fascism” was the very place to do this and not only did the author fail, it looks like he didn’t bother trying.
The first 200 pages of the book discuss how fascism came to power through attacks on left-wing organisations and people. Essentially they annihilated the opposition and through a campaign of violence and intimidation, increasingly acting as a para-state before occupying the actual offices of the state. This process began after the war and was more or less completed by the mid 1920s. There is much information here. But too much information. I believe there was a certain sense in drumming into the reader the extent and breadth of this process, but this went on ad nauseum and the narrative power got lost in the detail. Ultimately it really doesn’t matter whether it was seven or eight people who were killed in a reprisal one hundred years ago. It is not a systematic documentation, but a selective one. So why the baroque level of detail? Sadly the exposition of persecution of socialist advocates and ordinary people becomes tedious beyond belief. Make no mistake, this was the main way in which fascism came to power (and designed a playbook that will be used ever since). But the absence of the discussion of anything else – why and how people were driven to engage in this campaign – paints everything in the same grey shade. Fascists bad. Socialists good. No nuance. Cut and dry. No real connection made between the violence of WWI and the psychology of the man on the street. In short beyond a stale listing of fascist violence, no real explanation of the condition or motives of the people who carried it out. Only a discussion of the socialists, trade unionists and so on who were persecuted. Sure, that’s interesting to a degree, but this reads much more like a homage than a work of historical study.
This is all the more perplexing because the author is apparently aware of some of the elements of this. Page 60, speaking of Fiume: “…It was in Fiume that many of the key features of the fascist movement were created: the chants and the language, the uniforms, the balcony speeches, the rhetoric, the cult of personality…” Ok, rightio, John, so I guess you are going to tell the reader about this extremely important event and how it influenced Italian politics for years to come, right? Ah no, we’ll move straight back to discussing the individual case of critic of the war Francesco Misiano.
Page 192. “Italian fascism’s effective apparatus of repression was accompanied by polices which engaged with everyday life and looked to win over the population.” I guess we’ll here more about that then. Oh, no, sadly not. We’ll read about a left-wing assassination attempt to avenge Matteotti.
The focus on the left – most of the author’s sources come from this camp – would be more excusable if it gave some context to the rise of fascism. How nationalist were Italian socialists in the 1920s? To what extent were socialists dismayed with the post-war treaties or share cultural values with fascists, say as regards the family. A sense of this would have helped explain, beyond violence and intimidation, the appeal of the movement. And although the author outlines how this occurred the length and breadth of Italy, and speaks of how certain places had a strong fascist base and others a strong left-wing tradition, there is no attempt to give any kind of framework for this. Was the south more strongly socialist than the north? Did fascist ideology have a different flavour depending on geography? We know, because the author choses to tell us, that areas like San Lorenzo in Rome tried to hold out, but what of working class districts in Naples? Are there any similarities or continuities that can be identified, or was – as we can be only led to conclude – it arbitrary and potted?
In so far as it did look at fascism, the focus was on the grass roots participants as much as the high profile figures. But the grass roots people are not examined. We jump registers, as if what someone does on the street can be simply explained by what Mussolini does on a balcony.
One-sided, unbalanced, biased, and derivative, if this book was subtitled “the Italian left during the fascist period” it would have made more sense.
The lengthy exegesis given to the killing of Mussolini and the treatment of his corpse is totally gratuitous. Who was and wasn’t there, who the first person to report it was, is all by the by. It is indicative of the failure to build a narrative that invests the reader in the outcome, and inability to discern what is salient and pertinent and what is irrelevant. Overall, a really poor show.

[Fionnán · Rating 2 out of 5]

Is mainly a very awkwardly written list of the actions of the Italian left during the 30s

[Emmanuel Gustin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Italian fascism, to me, is still a historical phenomenon that it difficult to understand. The frustration of Italian nationalism after a disappointing victory in WWI certainly had to do something with it, enhanced by the still recent memory of the Italian unification. But it then evolved into a bizarre personality cult built around Benito Mussolini — a pathological narcissist with astonishingly bad strategic judgment, whose most remarkable characteristic was the sheer contempt that he felt for his own people. The suicide pact between the dictator and his followers so quickly dissolved after the collapse of 1943, that one is left wondering how it ever came to be. And how it is possible that the fallen dictator still has some admirers today.

John Foot’s account of personal experiences during the years of fascism focuses on a big part of the answer: Violence. The use of violence as a political tool was integral to fascism, and Foot describes how fascism rose to power by executing a slow coup by attrition, by systematically beating up its opponents, by denying the results of elections, by establishing a creeping reign of terror over Italy’s cities and communities. It’s a gripping but horrendous story. Of course it would not have been possible without the tolerance and complicity of the conservative right, without policemen who looked the other way, politicians who tolerated unlawfulness, and finally a king who approved Mussolini’s appointment as prime minister. Sadly, the catholic church too became an accomplice. It's a familiar story, as the extreme right always relies on the complacency of right-wing politicians who are foolish and naive enough to seek and alliance with it; but that doesn't make it any less depressing. It must have been a horrifying, nightmarish experience to be the target of gang violence and to know that the state and police would do nothing whatsoever to protect you.

The driving force of fascism were the gangs of squadristi and the more or less charismatic thugs who controlled them. The coup of 1922, and a coup it was, of course did not end the violence. Instead it became integrated in the state, officially sanctioned instead of merely tolerated. A fascist state that thrived on repression and humiliation was established. Its embrace of racism and anti-semitism was not only a result of the fatal alliance with Nazi Germany, but also the consequence of its persistent need to find new victims. However, the promotion within that state of the former leaders of the blackshirt gangs did set in the rot, as they were predictably corrupt, unreliable, and incompetent in their new roles. Mussolini’s selfish decision to enter the war in 1940 accelerated the decay. John Gooch has described in “Mussolini's War" the staggering incompetence of the Duce as a war leader, whose decisions were more often inspired by his pompous vanity than by any strategic sense.

This book is getting some bad reviews from the neofascists among the readers. The author probably won't regret that. But it is genuinely weird that Benito Mussolini and his regime, despite their total and humiliating failure, still have some fans today. Perhaps this is possible because it the essential hollowness of Italian fascism. One can search for its political and ideological core, and find a void behind the showmanship. A void that some people want to fill with their own delusions of grandeur. But also, the ghost of fascism was never entirely buried because the second echelon of fascist leaders, in 1943, turned on their boss to save their own skins.

Foot devotes time to the fall of fascism and its consequences. He describes the outburst of popular feeling after the death of Mussolini, with a crowd in Milan venting its anger on the dead bodies of the former dictator and his accomplices and his Mistress. An event that, according to Foot, some Italians later found both shameful and necessary, as if they felt a duty to kill their own monster, whatever the cost. And then, after that catharsis, the willingness of the people to forget and partially forgive, as if the corpse of Mussolini had carried off the sins of the nation with it. There never was full justice, never a final reckoning with the bloody past.

This is not a full history of Italian fascism, it is a collection of the experiences of those who lived in and with it. An incomplete picture, but a very important part of it. Because of the sheer number of people whose story is touched on, it contains a lot of names, and required a decent memory not to get lost. But it is very readable.

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are subjects that you think you understand, but then you are presented with a book that blows that view away and gives you a whole new insight. This is one of those books. I'd always seen Mussolini's Italy as fascism lite. That hidden in the shadow of Nazi Germany it wasn't that bad. This book shows how wrong I was.

Foot start in 1911 with the war in Libya and takes us through World War One and the immediate post-war period where it looked like it would be communism or socialism that over-threw the Italian state, especially after the Red Years. But they never really seized the opportunities that strikes and riots presented them. It is then shocking how quickly the fascists destroyed the left and Trade Unionism often using the most savage violence to do so.

Mussolini's appointment as PM was another classic example of the centrists and soft right assuming that they could control a radical to save the state from the threat of red violence. It was the same kind of mistake as the Germans made with Adolf Hitler. A lesson from both is that if you a political party shows you what it is you should believe them. The failure of the Italian monarchy, government, and armed forces to stand up to fascist violence is a stain of inter-war Italy.

The best thing about Foot's book is that it doesn't focus on Mussolini. It uses accounts of the rank and file, of newspapers and pamphlets, and of contemporary speeches to help to tell the stories. This book makes it clear how horrific the violence of the Italian fascists was. It also makes Italy's anti-Jewish actions clearer and the role of antisemitism in fascism itself.

He also does a good job of showing how the victims of fascist violence were quietly forgotten and how post-war fascists were let off in ways. Perhaps Italy needed its own Nuremburg trials. Instead Mussolini was executed, along with a number of other fascists. Would trials have helped post-war Italy? Or would fascism have re-built its support. The trial of Brandimarte for the 1922 Turin Massacre suggests it might not have gone well. He finally died in 1971 and was buried with military honours.

Foot talks about a 'pact of forgetting'. The victims of fascist violence have never seemed to get justice. Amnesty's favoured ex-fascists. Judges - especially at the higher level - had loyalty serviced fascism and weren't interested in holding anyone to account. Post war amnesties seemed to benefit the fascists more than anyone else.

As I said this was an eye-opening book for me. I think Foot lays bare the genuine horror of Italian fascism. Whilst Nazism's crimes might have a more international impact but Italy's fascism was equally evil. Even someone like Rodolfo Graziani, whose roles in atrocities in Libya and Ethiopia got off scot free. He was seen as a war hero. But then imperial crimes in Africa aren't just Italian so maybe it was in the interests of post-war imperial powers to look the other way.

It also makes you realise that we in Britain were lucky never to have ourselves tested in the way that continental Europe was. We never had a successful fascist movement here - for whatever reasons - and accordingly we never got to see how quickly civilised society might have collapsed. We were never occupied so we never got to see how much collaboration there would have been. It has given us a false moral superiority over the rest of Europe that I think has helped pollute our modern politics.

Highly recommended.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I began reading John Foot’s insightful and penetrating history of fascism, Blood and Power, after visiting an exhibition at the Charing Cross Library in London (near Trafalgar Sq.) about the murder of Italian socialist politician, Giacomo Matteotti in June 1924 - on the hundredth anniversary of his assassination. Matteotti had made a clandestine visit Britain in April 1924 to seek the support of Britain’s first Labour Government in opposing Mussolini.

Since finishing the book, Britain has seen its own upsurge in fascist violence in many towns and cities. The scale of the violence is the biggest since 1970s. We can all learn a great deal about what contemporary fascists are trying to achieve from this timely history by John Foot.

Foot explains in his book how the fascist preoccupation with violent methods originated in WWI, feeding on the bitterness of many former veterans. The innovation of the black-shirted squadristi was to put organised political violence at the centre of their insurrectionary strategy.

The fascist squads, armed with guns, knives and cudgels, set out to create regional centres of power where they would systematically destroy Left wing organisations, murdering and torturing anyone who resisted their onslaught. Tragically, Italian Socialists and Communists were either riven by sectarian disputes or a blind faith in respectable constitutionalism. Foot also reveals how all shades of the Italian left comprehensively misunderstood the dictatorial trajectory of fascism and how it would mean the annihilation of their political parties and the effective silencing of all dissenting voices for two decades. For Italian workers and peasants it meant years of repression, a disastrous war and participation in the Nazi genocide from 1938.

Foot shows how the fascists were assisted by a benign neutrality from Italian police and other state organs throughout their bloody conquest of political power - until it culminated in the King of Italy capitulating to the insurrectionary March on Rome in 1922. Hitler made a close study of Mussolini’s road to power - asking him for an autograph the first time they met! The militia party structure of the Nazis was pretty much s simple copy of the fascists - only the colour of the shirts was changed.

Regrettably, Foot’s narrative does not address the important question of whether Mussolini could have been stopped? There are only a few pages devoted to the Arditi del Popolo (ADP) - the world’s first dedicated anti-fascist movement. The late socialist historian, Tom Behan, argues - I think convincingly - in his book, The Resistible Rise of Benito Mussolini, that ADP evolved, under the constant threat of fascist violence, to organise physical resistance to fascist squads on a cross-party, non-sectarian basis. Antonio Gramsci was one of the few socialist leaders to recognise its potential. Behan’s book does not feature in Foot’s bibliography and there is no indication that he has read it.

Blood and Power’s final chapters discuss how fascist organisation was able to survive Italy’s defeat in the war. The “long awaited moment” existed in 1945 to finish off not only Mussolini but all those who sanctioned and participated in his crimes (Behan also wrote a book about this period). This has proven to be a very costly failure. Instead, many of them prospered in post war Italy. One Mussolini’s political heirs is now the Prime Minister of Italy. Foot’s verdict is damning.

The recent fascist insurgency in Britain shows that lessons of fighting back against the blackshirt thugs go far wider than Italy. Blood and Power should be required reading for every serious anti-fascist militant. Matteotti (aka “Il Tempesta”) would become a national hero for speaking out against fascist corruption in Parliament on 30 May 1924. Twelve days later he was kidnapped and murdered by a fascist gang. Today, there are streets and piazzas named after him all over Italy. In the last year of his life, Matteotti had documented the many crimes of the first year of Mussolini’s rule and published them in pamphlet form. His murder was met by spontaneous strikes and demonstrations across the country. It is probable, that he was murdered because he was trying to develop an international anti-fascist campaign. We have need of political leaders of his calibre today.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book written by a master historian about the connection between massive violence and politics, and in this case the violent means which were used by the Fascist and brutal dictator Mussolini and his cronies to achieve power in Italy. Horrible things happened in Italy in his time and Professor Foot gives an endless number of new testimonies to show how terrible the rule of the fascists was in Italy. Various means of intimidation, mock trials, illegal executions en mass ,etc. In addition, Mussolini's regime notoriously treated the eternal scapegoat in history- the Jews.Thus he destroys once and for all the myth that the Italians were good towards the Jews. These were sent to camps and abused . In addtion, the dictator used horrendous methods to conquer and destroy Libya and Ethiopia(by using poison gas) and later, during WW2, 250000 Italian soldiers were sent to the Russian front to asssist the Nazi hordes of Hitler which invaded Russia.
The author concludes by giving us an imporatnt warning: democracy is very fragile and these days, insane leaders like the infamous and demented Donald Trump will do almost anything to destroy the democratic institutions. Ditto for Putin.
This book reads like a super-fast speed thriller and should be in everyone's library . More than highly recommended.

[Марина Козарева · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5

Blood and Power by John Foot is an ambitious and important book that examines Italian fascism through a wide range of violent incidents, personal stories, and political developments. John Foot presents a vast amount of material, and some chapters offer genuinely fascinating insights into people’s lives, the rise of fascist culture, and the broader atmosphere of fear and intimidation. His connections to modern politics are especially striking and alarming.

However, the book often focuses on what happened rather than why it happened. The first 150-200 pages feel repetitive, almost like an endless list of fascist attacks, with little exploration of motives, psychology, or social factors. Key events - such as the March on Rome - are treated too briefly, and many important questions remain unanswered. The structure can feel chaotic, with long digressions and entire chapters that read more like memorials to victims than analytical history.

Despite these flaws, the second half becomes more engaging, and the topic itself is crucial. The book succeeds in showing the scale of fascist violence, even if it doesn’t fully explain the deeper forces that allowed fascism to flourish.

Blood and Power is a valuable, informative, but sometimes frustrating read. It's a good introduction to Italian fascism, though not the definitive study.

[Chaz Sexington · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic and topical book.

It's written in a slightly different, but thoroughly enjoyable way, following the lives of people during the different phases of the rise and fall of Fascism in Italy, rather than a grand retelling of the highlights, if you can call it that. It also doesn't cover Mussolini in particular, making it stand out in a good way.

That John Foot focussed on a variety of different people showed how it affected everyone in society. No one is spared.

This means you have to think a little when reading it to catch the trends and narratives; it's not spelled out for you, but it is easy to follow. Whether it's the liberals and conservatives thinking they can domesticate the fascists, or that they're at least not socialists, the role of the judiciary in enabling fascist violence, or the consolidation of power in the executive, it is also covered by the grim stories of individuals rather than dry history.

I see how some readers have found it a little slow at the start, but as someone who is thoroughly interested in the Great War and the lead up to the War to End All Wars, it was still intrinsic to the retelling of the rise and collapse of Fascism.

It will also make you think on the current events and see parallells.

[Moses · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent basic summary of the fascist regime in Italy: names, dates, etc. There is an understandable emphasis on antifascist resistance and antifascist martyrs, accompanied by the standard warnings about fascism being always in the wings, in Italy or in the UK or US (January 6th does not go unmentioned).

Foot’s book is quite brisk and would have benefited from a tighter timeline.

One question near the end of the book was interesting to me: is fascism merely violence, the “cudgel and castor oil” of the squadristi? A fascist is quoted as saying that a fascist with a gun but without an idea will always beat an antifascist with ideas but no gun.

This is no doubt true, but sidesteps the theoretical base of fascism which is of course not merely the force of reaction in a quasi-revolutionary moment.

There is much theoretical literature on fascism, and Foot’s book would have benefited from more interaction with it. D’Annunzio, for example, is depicted as a respectable man of letters who happened to be associated with the fascists, rather than a quasi-fascist theoretician.

[Dominic · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a lot of good content in this book, but I agree with other reviews noting that the book feels a bit like a loosely assembled series of vignettes rather than an organized history. If Foot's book has a theme, it's that Italian Fascism was violent. He highlights examples of political violence in each year starting from World War I and ending with the overthrow of the Salo Republic in 1945. This is not a thorough political history of Italian Fascism or a biography of Mussolini. Foot provides enough background for readers unfamiliar with the broader history, but they linger more in the background. One of the highlights of the book is the attention given to antifascists, like Deputy Giacomo Matteotti, who stood up for their beliefs and suffered the consequences.

[John Bleasdale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent highly relevant deeply depressing.
What is particularly valuable is Foot’s insistence on the utter violence and brutality of Italian fascism which apologists always deny, comparing it favorably with Hitler and the Nazis. The Italian Holocaust is a case in point. Italy didn’t kill as many Jews - it didn’t have as many to begin with - but proportionally it wiped out entire populations which had had Jewish communities for centuries. Also salutary is the sense of how resistable fascism was if it hadn’t been for the semi-fascism of the rightwing party and how in the aftermath there was nary a denazification process with many prominent fascists facing no serious repercussions for their crimes.

[William The Avid Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

An informative history of the Rise and Fall of Italian Fascism and Fascist Italy. The author is clearly sympathetic towards Italian socialism but this does not usually taint the historical analysis in the book. One interesting thing I learned in this book, is that fascists had de facto already destroyed democracy in parts of Italy prior to the March on Rome through simple violence. The pre-fascist Italian state of 1919-1922 was also complicit at times in facilitating unprovoked fascist violence. While Mussolini was nowhere near as bad as Hitler or Stalin, this book makes quite clear that Mussolini destroyed Italian democracy and severely curtailed Italian civil liberties, especially during the years 1925-1943.

[Gee · Rating 1 out of 5]

ignoring the deification of 'internationalist' left and their 'martyrs', the book ignores the origins of the nationalist 'socialist' and internationalist/masonic/talmudic 'socialist' divergence. typical of books on this period, focuses primarily on the violence from the right, largely ignoring the insane zealotry of left.

zero to no emphasis on the cultural milieu of period; "protagonists" and "antagonists" are cardboard cutouts, with zero insights regarding motivations and prevailing trends. (after all, what CAUSED the rise of Franco, Mussolini and the Austrian painter?)

you're better off reading a chatgpt transcript.

[Vojtech · Rating 3 out of 5]

More like The Rise and Fall of Italian Ani-Fascism under Fascism.

It is nor history nor study of Italian fascism nor how it was created and got to power. It is... well I do not know what it is. A mixture of stories from fascist Italy, mostly about anti-fascists, which try to tell I do not know what or prove I do not know what point. As you can tell, I do not know what to think about the book and I think neither knows its author. If it had any aim, goal or argument it wanted to prove, well, it failed not only in achieving it, but also in defining it.

Definetly do not recommend to read it, waste of time.

[Eirik · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent history of Italian fascism, the book is now more relevant than ever. The best parts for me are the ones focusing on memory, forgetting and the rise of neofascism in Italy. Unfortunately, the book frequently gets bogged down in details throughout, making the narrative (for me) difficult to follow and leaving little room for analysis. I get that John Foot is a nitty gritty kind of guy, but I'm a big picture kind of guy and I don't really need to know the life story of every person in the story.

[Frederik Kronborg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent description of the fascist movement, their seizure of power and the exercise of power.

Foot succeeds in describing the fascists as they were understood in their time, and in contrast to their opponents. But where the work particularly contributes something new is the descriptions of the aftermath of fascism and not least about the fascists after their fall from power.

If there were a single criticism of the work, it is that not much time is spent describing the fascists' desire for empire, and their war of extermination on the African continent.

[Bosse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interessant boek, wel een zwaar onderwerp dus niet per se 'luchtig' of even gezellig voor op vakantie.
Boek begint met een anekdote over een oma die noemt dat fascisme "wonderful" geweest zou zijn maar deze mening wordt vervolgens niet uitgelegd maar juist onderbelicht. Ik ben dan toch wel benieuwd waarom sommigen het fascistische regime/tijdperk als iets moois en positiefs herinneren en ervaarden.

[Tobi ﾄﾋﾞ]

I paused this because I feel like this book was good but I don’t have any prior knowledge of Italy but this book sort of assumes I do- or maybe the fact that it’s not in chronological order is confusing me a bit and I’m spending a lot of time trying to put things into order rather than absorbing anything else. It’s me not the book

[Andy Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb

A visceral and intelligent account of the rise and fall of fascism in the
20th century. The horror and inhumanity of this foul movement are well described. In the epilogue the author has some prescient words to say about right wing movements in the modern world.

[Joe Huennekens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a great overview — too narrowly focused on fascist violence against the left