Recently released book...Fascism's European Empire
Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2009 12:31 am
Book review from The Historian, Vol. 71 No. 1 Spring 2009.
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Fascism's European Empire: Italian Occupation during the Second World War – By Davide Rodogno
G. Bruce Strang 1
1 Lakehead University
Copyright © 2009 Phi Alpha Theta
Article Text
Fascism's European Empire: Italian Occupation during the Second World War . By Davide Rodogno . Translated by Adrian Belton . ( : Cambridge University Press , 2006 . Pp. xxi, 504 . .)
Readers of popular fiction or viewers of movies may have seen depictions of Italians in the Second World War as lovers rather than fighters. As occupiers, they were more likely to woo the conquered with mandolins than to persecute their perceived inferiors. Davide Rodogno's 2003 work Il nuove ordine mediterraneo substantially revised this romanticized view of the so-called brava gente—of the Italians as the war's good guys. He demonstrates in detail the often brutal nature of fascist wartime occupation and the sweeping aims of Italian racialist policy. English-language readers now have access to this excellent monograph thanks to Adrian Belton's fluid translation.
Rodogno argues that historians need to understand fascist Italy's projects and its aims in the territories that it conquered during the war. He investigates several interrelated questions: How did Italy plan to deal with occupied France, Yugoslavia, and Greece? What would the new world order that dictator Benito Mussolini aimed to create look like? Did the Italian army share Mussolini's vision? How did Italy work with and how did it seek to obstruct its German ally? Did Italian zones of occupation serve as safe havens for Jews and other refugees?
Rodogno's account covers a wide array of issues, including Italy's occupation policies, its relations with Germany, its attempts to exploit occupied territories' economies, the relationship of fascist ideology to the administration of occupied territories, legal and jurisdictional questions, forced Italianization, collaboration by subject populations, and the Jewish question. He concludes that Fascist Italy aimed to conquer a spazio vitale—a vast empire in the Mediterranean—and to overthrow British and French plutocratic domination. Mussolini's new order would provide space and resources for and would help to create a new fascist man, convinced of Italian racial supremacy and prepared to rule the empire with a rod of iron.
In spite of these sweeping aims, German economic power and contempt for its junior Italian ally severely curtailed Italy's freedom to maneuver in territories conquered not by Italian efforts but by German feats of arms. As rebellions against fascist and Nazi occupation gained strength, the desperate Italian response became increasingly brutal, mirroring the tactics of Nazism, if not the frequency and intensity of the Nazis' abhorrent violence. Although some Italian generals and diplomats worked on a personal basis to save refugees, the state and most of the military made no attempt to rescue the persecuted, and, in fact, cooperated to a degree with Nazi atrocities, turning over Jews and other refugees to their persecutors.
Rodogno relates this disturbing story exceptionally well. His research is first-rate. He has worked assiduously in Italian archives and provided comprehensive and compelling findings. He is careful with the resulting evidence, clearly understanding its importance but also its limits. His explanation is meticulously organized and presented, and nonspecialists will be able to follow the chain of argument easily. Rodogno cautiously offers this work as a first step in understanding Italy's occupation policies during the war, but he has accomplished far more than that limited aim. This book will be the standard for years to come, at least until the release of currently closed archival evidence allows future historians to complement Rodogno's persuasive research and argument.
.................................
Fascism's European Empire: Italian Occupation during the Second World War – By Davide Rodogno
G. Bruce Strang 1
1 Lakehead University
Copyright © 2009 Phi Alpha Theta
Article Text
Fascism's European Empire: Italian Occupation during the Second World War . By Davide Rodogno . Translated by Adrian Belton . ( : Cambridge University Press , 2006 . Pp. xxi, 504 . .)
Readers of popular fiction or viewers of movies may have seen depictions of Italians in the Second World War as lovers rather than fighters. As occupiers, they were more likely to woo the conquered with mandolins than to persecute their perceived inferiors. Davide Rodogno's 2003 work Il nuove ordine mediterraneo substantially revised this romanticized view of the so-called brava gente—of the Italians as the war's good guys. He demonstrates in detail the often brutal nature of fascist wartime occupation and the sweeping aims of Italian racialist policy. English-language readers now have access to this excellent monograph thanks to Adrian Belton's fluid translation.
Rodogno argues that historians need to understand fascist Italy's projects and its aims in the territories that it conquered during the war. He investigates several interrelated questions: How did Italy plan to deal with occupied France, Yugoslavia, and Greece? What would the new world order that dictator Benito Mussolini aimed to create look like? Did the Italian army share Mussolini's vision? How did Italy work with and how did it seek to obstruct its German ally? Did Italian zones of occupation serve as safe havens for Jews and other refugees?
Rodogno's account covers a wide array of issues, including Italy's occupation policies, its relations with Germany, its attempts to exploit occupied territories' economies, the relationship of fascist ideology to the administration of occupied territories, legal and jurisdictional questions, forced Italianization, collaboration by subject populations, and the Jewish question. He concludes that Fascist Italy aimed to conquer a spazio vitale—a vast empire in the Mediterranean—and to overthrow British and French plutocratic domination. Mussolini's new order would provide space and resources for and would help to create a new fascist man, convinced of Italian racial supremacy and prepared to rule the empire with a rod of iron.
In spite of these sweeping aims, German economic power and contempt for its junior Italian ally severely curtailed Italy's freedom to maneuver in territories conquered not by Italian efforts but by German feats of arms. As rebellions against fascist and Nazi occupation gained strength, the desperate Italian response became increasingly brutal, mirroring the tactics of Nazism, if not the frequency and intensity of the Nazis' abhorrent violence. Although some Italian generals and diplomats worked on a personal basis to save refugees, the state and most of the military made no attempt to rescue the persecuted, and, in fact, cooperated to a degree with Nazi atrocities, turning over Jews and other refugees to their persecutors.
Rodogno relates this disturbing story exceptionally well. His research is first-rate. He has worked assiduously in Italian archives and provided comprehensive and compelling findings. He is careful with the resulting evidence, clearly understanding its importance but also its limits. His explanation is meticulously organized and presented, and nonspecialists will be able to follow the chain of argument easily. Rodogno cautiously offers this work as a first step in understanding Italy's occupation policies during the war, but he has accomplished far more than that limited aim. This book will be the standard for years to come, at least until the release of currently closed archival evidence allows future historians to complement Rodogno's persuasive research and argument.