John Pollard
The People Have Spoken
Fascist Voices: An Intimate History of Mussolini’s Italy
By Christopher Duggan
The Bodley Head 501pp £25 order from our bookshop
While on holiday three years ago in Taormina, Sicily, I found in a souvenir shop swimming trunks in the Italian colours with a picture of Mussolini in full military fig. The bathers bore the caption ‘Benito Mussolini, grande statista Italiano, 1883–1945’ (‘Benito Mussolini, great Italian statesman, 1883–1945’). The recent revival of the Duce’s reputation makes Christopher Duggan’s Fascist Voices a timely read.
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