Synopses & Reviews
This new study re-examines the controversial debate on Fascist Italy's road to international conflict that has raged for six decades. The author's privileged access to until now unseen archival materials allows him to assess the ideological, geopolitical, domestic and strategic considerations that shaped Mussolini's alliance with Hitler, and his subsequent decision to wage war against Great Britain and France in June 1940.
Review
"This is an excellent study of a little-known but important aspect of the Second World War. It has the great merit of being easy to read at the same time as using much unpublished material from the Italian State Archives."--Denis Mack Smith, Emeritus Fellow of All Souls, Oxford, and Emeritus Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge
Synopsis
The true nature of Mussolini's foreign policy during the late interwar period has been the subject of considerable controversy. Was Mussolini in reality pro-British, even as late as June 1940; or was his international policy more sinister and based on conquering a Fascist empire in North Africa and the Middle East?
Robert Mallett makes use of much new archival evidence in order to answer this riddle of interwar history. Mallett argues that Mussolini had harboured imperial designs in the Mediterranean and Red Sea from as early as 1919, but that not until 1933, with the rise of Hitler, was it possible for Fascist Italy to pursue a programme of territorial expansion. Previously unpublished material also casts new light on the Nazi-Fascist relationship, revealing it to be at times paranoid, acrimonious and duplicitous on both sides.
Although the book focuses on Italian policy, it provides an important reassessment of the Ethiopian Crisis, the Spanish Civil War, the Austro-German Anschluss, Munich and the run up to the Second World War. Mallett shows that it is erroneous to place excessive emphasis on the role of Adolf Hitler in subverting the interwar international order, and demonstrates that Mussolini was heavily implicated in the global conflict that erupted in September 1939.
About the Author
Robert Mallett is Visiting Lecturer in Modern History, University of Birmingham.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements * Contrasting Interpretations of Mussolini and the Origins of the Second World War * A Tortuous Landscape * A New Alignment * The Holy War * Cementing the Bond * A Brutal Friendship *
Passi Romani * 'Not a Diaphragm, but an Axis' * 'The Vital Need for Empire' * The Climacteric * Commitments * Conclusion * Select Bibliography * Index