[Italian Fascism]
Before class
* Read Palmer, 785-790
* Key terms
fascio di combattimento (Blackshirts)
March on Rome
Benito Mussolini
squadristi
Duce
corporative state
* Key questions
1. Describe Mussolini's background and ideas.
2. How did Mussolini and the Fascists take advantage of the postwar situation of
dissatisfaction and unrest in Italy?
3. "In other countries Fascism came to be regarded as a possible alternative to democratic or
parliamentary government and a corrective for troubles whose reality no one could deny."
Comment.
* Key quotation
If it is admitted that the nineteenth century has been the century of Socialism, Liberalism
and Democracy, it does not follow that the twentieth must also be the century of
Liberalism, Socialism and Democracy. Political doctrines pass; peoples remain. It is to
be expected that this century may be that of authority, a century of the “Right,” a Fascist
century. If the nineteenth was the century of the individual it may be expected that this
one may be the century of “collectivism” and therefore the century of the State.
Benito Mussolini, The Doctrine of Fascism (1932)
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