2016/10/05 by L Ceci · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Italian Fascism and Post-war Society
paper · doi:10.1163/9789004328792
openalex publication_date 2016/10/05 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
The book reconstructs the relationship between the Catholic Church and Fascism. New sources from the Vatican Archives throw fresh light on individual aspects of this complex relationship: the accession of Mussolini to power, the war in Ethiopia, the racial laws, the comparison between Pius XI and Pius XII. This book offers a comprehensive reconstruction of this encounter, explaining the criteria that led Catholics to support a dictatorial, warmongering and racist regime. In contrast to the traditional periodization, the history begins with the childhood of Mussolini in the final years of the nineteenth century, and ends with the sudden collapse of his puppet regime, in 1945. This means to some extent placing in a different light the exceptional nature of the ventennio.