Exporting Fascism: Italian Fascists and Britain's Italians in the 1930s

by Claudia Baldoli

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781859737613
Publisher:	Berg Publishers
Publication date:	09/01/2003
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.47(d)

About the Author

Claudia Baldoli Sessional Lecturer, Birkbeck College and Research Fellow, Comitato Nazionale 'Italia nel Mondo', Rom

Editorial Reviews

"This impressive book illuminates the social history of the Italian immigrant community, the politics of Il Duce's British admirers, and the international tensions born of Mussolini's bellicose fanaticism." --MacGregor Knox, The London School of Economics and Political Science

"Claudia Baldoli's highly readable book restores a small but important section in the vast mosaic which makes up a full picture of Mussolini's regime. It also demonstrates a combination of archival scholarship and sound historiographical technique with a sophisticated (and jargon-free!) grasp of the mythic dynamics of Fascism undistorted by personal ideological preconceptions." --Roger Griffin, Oxford Brookes University

From the Publisher

Claudia Baldoli's highly readable book restores a small but important section in the vast mosaic which makes up a full picture of Mussolini's regime. It also demonstrates a combination of archival scholarship and sound historiographical technique with a sophisticated (and jargon-free!) grasp of the mythic dynamics of Fascism undistorted by personal ideological preconceptions.

Roger Griffin

This impressive book illuminates the social history of the Italian immigrant community, the politics of Il Duce's British admirers, and the international tensions born of Mussolini's bellicose fanaticism.

The London School of Economics and Political Scien MacGregor Knox