Benito Mussolini was not a Hitler-like psychopath or fanatic. He was no ideologue, but a man obsessed with power. His lifelong motto was, “If you are not with me, you are against me.”
As Italy’s dictator, Mussolini long commanded more popularity tha ...
Benito Mussolini was not a Hitler-like psychopath or fanatic. He was no ideologue, but a man obsessed with power. His lifelong motto was, “If you are not with me, you are against me.”
As Italy’s dictator, Mussolini long commanded more popularity than any other politician of his ilk. He built roads, cultivated land, carried out major reforms and pursued a ruthless policy of conquest.
A former teacher, he spoke five languages, wrote books and played the violin. He was a brilliant journalist and an oratorical genius. He was cunning and wary. But his enormous success intoxicated him with power and destroyed his judgement. It all ended in tragedy for both him and the Italian people.
Göran Hägg’s biography proceeds from Italian sources and fresh insights as it chronicles Mussolini’s abandonment of the socialists to found the National Fascist party – whose stated goals were war and social reform – as well as his seizure of power in 1922 and brutal conquest of Ethiopia. Fear and miscalculation eventually caused him to take the fatal step of entering the war on Hitler’s side.
Hägg’s biography focuses on Mussolini the man and the price of power. He also introduces us to the mistresses, generals, schemers and hangers-on who surrounded the dictator.
Hägg is an author, pundit and university lecturer in literature.
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