Synopses & Reviews
Despite their undeniable historical importance, the leaders of the Fascist and Nazi youth organizations have received little attention from historians. In
Shaping the New Man, Alessio Ponzio uncovers the largely untold story of the training and education of these crucial protagonists of the Fascist and Nazi regimes, and he examines more broadly the structures, ideologies, rhetoric, and aspirations of youth organizations in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Ponzio shows how the Italian Fascistsandrsquo; pedagogical practices influenced the origin and evolution of the Hitler Youth. He dissects similarities and differences in the training processes of the youth leaders of the Opera Nazionale Balilla, Gioventandugrave; Italiana del Littorio, and Hitlerjugend. And, he explores the transnational institutional interactions and mutual cooperation that flourished between Mussoliniandrsquo;s and Hitlerandrsquo;s youth organizations in the 1930s and 1940s.
Review
andldquo;The Enemy of the New Man offers many rare insights into Mussoliniandrsquo;s totalitarian andlsquo;experimentandrsquo; in actively shaping the laws and cultural codes that regulated gender and sexuality during the Fascist period in Italy. Benadusi goes well below the surface rhetoric about the virility of the Fascist andlsquo;New Man,andrsquo; offering an important new understanding of actual practices of sexual repression during the Fascist period and the specific legal and punitive measures elaborated for the regimentation of the sexual lives of Italians. It is a book that takes many risks and offers significant rewards.andrdquo;andmdash;Patrick Rumble, author of Allegories of Contamination
Review
andldquo;A brilliant, luminously eloquent study of the unique nature of Italian fascism's efforts to manage masculinity, homo- and heterosexual alike, but also much more than that. Breathtaking in the scope of its source materials and the acuity of its analyses, The Enemy of the New Man advances the history of Catholicism and the comparative history of fascism, and above all offers numerous insights into how post-liberal and totalitarian systems work through sexual politics.andrdquo;andmdash;Dagmar Herzog, author of Sexuality in Europe: A Twentieth-Century History
Review
andldquo;The study is incredibly rich in information thanks to Benadusiandrsquo;s sustained archival research. . . . Its main strengths are the breadth of its scopeandmdash;both in range of issues tackled and in chronological reachandmdash;and the detail provided.andrdquo;andmdash;
Historian JournalReview
andldquo;This translation of Lorenzo Benadusiandrsquo;s weighty study . . . is a welcome addition to the growing body of scholarship on dissident sexualities in Italy.andrdquo;andmdash;
The HistorianReview
andldquo;Ponzio provides, above all, valuable new perspectives on the tremendous influence of Italian Fascism on fledgling Nazi youth organizations, and the cooperative and reciprocal relationships that flourished between the two regimes.andrdquo;andmdash;Michael Ebner, author of
Ordinary Violence in Mussoliniandrsquo;s ItalyReview
andldquo;A valuable and original contribution to the historiography of the totalitarian project in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. Alessio Ponzio should especially be commended for his transnational focus and for the rigor with which he traces the interactions, influences, and tensions between the youth organizations of the two regimes.andrdquo;andmdash;Joshua Arthurs, author of
Excavating Modernity: The Roman Past in Fascist ItalySynopsis
In this first in-depth historical study of homosexuality in Fascist Italy, Lorenzo Benadusi brings to light immensely important archival documents regarding the sexual politics of the Italian Fascist regime; he adds new insights to the study of the complex relationships of masculinity, sexuality, and Fascism; he explores the connections between new Fascist values and preexisting Italian traditional and Roman Catholic views on morality; he documents both the Fascist regimeandrsquo;s denial of the existence of homosexuality in Italy and its clandestine strategies and motivations for repressing and imprisoning homosexuals; he uncovers the ways that accusations of homosexuality (whether true or false) were used against political and personal enemies; and above all, he shows how homosexuality was deemed the enemy of the Fascist andldquo;New Man,andrdquo; an ideal of a virile warrior and dominating husband vigorously devoted to the andldquo;politicalandrdquo; function of producing children for the Fascist state.
and#160;and#160;and#160; Benadusi investigates the regulation and regimentation of gender in Fascist Italy, and the extent to which, in uneasy concert with the Catholic Church, the regime engaged in the cultural and legal engineering of masculinity and femininity. He cites a wealth of unpublished documents, official speeches, letters, coerced confessions, private letters and diaries, legal documents, and government memos to reveal and analyze how the orders issued by the regime attempted to protect the andldquo;integrity of the Italian race.andrdquo; For the first time, documents from the Vatican archives illuminate how the Catholic Church dealt with issues related to homosexuality during the Fascist period in Italy.
Synopsis
The culture of the Middle Ages was as complex, if not as various, as our own, as the essays in this volume ably demonstrate. The essays cover a wide range of tipics, from church sculpture as "advertisement" to tricks and illusions as "homeeconomics."
Synopsis
This is the first book to provide a comparative and transnational treatment of youth organizations in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, demonstrating the influence of Italian Fascist youth policies on the Hitler Youth and documenting the cooperative and reciprocal relationship that flourished between these two regimes during the 1930s and early 1940s.
About the Author
Alessio Ponzio received his PhD in history and politics from the Universitandaacute; Roma Tre and is now pursuing a second degree at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in womenandrsquo;s studies and history. He has held fellowships at the Newhouse Center for the Humanities at Wellesley College and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrationsand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Acknowledgmentsand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
List of Abbreviationsand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;
Introductionand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
1 A Generational Apocalypseand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
2 Organizing the Youth in Fascist Italyand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
3 A New Class of Educatorsand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
4 And They Will Never Be Free Again, for the Rest of Their Livesand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
5 The Training of the Hitler Youth Leadershipand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
6 The Relationship between the Opera Nazionale Balilla and the Hitlerjugendand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
7 The Hitlerjugend Academy of Braunschweigand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
8 A New Organizationand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
9 The Relationship between the Gioventandugrave; Italiana del Littorio and the Hitlerjugendand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
10 Nazi and Fascist Youth Leaders and the Effects of Warand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Aftermathand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;
Notesand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Index and#160; and#160; and#160; and#160; and#160; and#160; and#160;and#160;