Giulia Albanese - The March on Rome: Violence and the Rise of Italian Fascism

The aim of this book is to reconstruct the violent nature of the March on Rome and to emphasise its significance in demarcating a real break in the countrys history and the beginning of the Fascist dictatorship. This aspect of the March has long been obscured: first by the Fascists celebratory project, and then by the ironic and reductive interpretation of the event put forward by anti-Fascists.

This volume focuses on the role and purpose of Fascist political violence from its origins. In doing so, it highlights the conflictual nature of the March by illustrating the violent impact it had on Italian institutions as well as the importance of a debate on this political turning point in Italy and beyond. The volume also examines how the event crucially contributed to the construction of a dictatorial political regime in Italy in the weeks following Mussolinis appointment as head of the government.

Originally published in Italian, this book fills a notable gap in current critical discussion surrounding the March in the English language.

Giulia Albanese is Associate Professor at the University of Padua. Her research focuses on the origins of Fascism, political violence and authoritarian cultures in the interwar years. Her previous books include Dittature mediterranee. Sovversioni fasciste e colpi di stato in Italia, Spagna, Portogallo (2016). With Roberta Pergher, she edited In the Society of Fascists: Acclamation, Acquiescence and Agency in Mussolinis Italy (2012).

Routledge Studies in Fascism and the Far Right

Series editors: Nigel Copsey, Teesside University, and Graham Macklin, Center for Research on Extremism (C-REX), University of Oslo.

This new book series focuses upon fascist, far right and right-wing politics primarily within a historical context but also drawing on insights from other disciplinary perspectives. Its scope also includes radical-right populism, cultural manifestations of the far right and points of convergence and exchange with the mainstream and traditional right.

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Edited by Nigel Copsey and John E. Richardson

Tomorrow Belongs to Us

The British Far Right Since 1967

Edited by Nigel Copsey and Matthew Worley

The Portuguese Far Right

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Riccardo Marchi

Never Again

Rock Against Racism and the Anti-Nazi League 19761982

David Renton

Anti-fascism in the Nordic Countries

New Perspectives, Comparisons and Transnational Connections

Edited by Kasper Braskn, Nigel Copsey and Johan A. Lundin

The March on Rome

Violence and the Rise of Italian Fascism

Giulia Albanese

Aurel Kolnais War Against the West Reconsidered

Wolfgang Bialas

The Ku Klux Klan and Freemasonry in 1920s America

Fighting Fraternities

Miguel Hernandez

For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Studies-in-Fascism-and-the-Far-Right/book-series/FFR

First published 2019

by Routledge

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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2019 Giulia Albanese

The right of Giulia Albanese to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Albanese, Giulia, author.

Title: The march on Rome / Giulia Albanese.

Other titles: Marcia su Roma. English

Description: Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY : Routledge, 2019. | Series: Routledge studies in fascism and the far right | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018048256| ISBN 9781138069732 (hardback; alk. paper) | ISBN 9781315115481 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: ItalyHistoryMarch on Rome, 1922. | FascismItaly. | ItalyPolitics and government1922-1945.

Classification: LCC DG571.75. A4313 2019 | DDC 945.091dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018048256

ISBN: 978-1-138-06973-2 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-11548-1 (ebk)

This book is a revised version of the Italian edition, based on my PhD thesis, which I defended at the European University Institute in December 2004.

I am intellectually indebted to this Institute, and in particular to the Department of History and Civilization. I would like to thank all the people who have contributed to the development of this work, and in particular my supervisor Luisa Passerini, along with Raffaele Romanelli, Victoria de Grazia and Heinz Gerhard Haupt, who have followed it at different stages, but always with the utmost care and helpfulness. I am also grateful to my colleagues and friends from those years, who have made me the person and historian I am. I am also most grateful to the Istituto italiano per gli studi storici for enabling me to complete this research, by offering me a scholarship and a year in Naples.

Many other people have stood by my side providing moral and intellectual support in the year I spent drafting this volume. While I cannot list them all, I would at least like to mention Stuart Woolf, Mariuccia Salvati, David Bidussa, Alessio Gagliardi and Tommaso Baris, together with Luisa Mangoni and Innocenzo Cervelli, who regrettably have passed away. I am deeply indebted to these people for their advice and willingness to read and discuss this and other works with me. Special thanks are owed to Gia Caglioti, not least for her final reading of the text; and for this final version to Sergio Knipe, who has translated the volume and, through his work, has helped me think it over.

Moreover, I am most grateful to the Department of History, Geography and Classical Studies of Padua University, which I joined several years ago. It is there that I started working on this translation and revision of the volume. In particular, I would like to mention Silvio Lanaro, a person who crucially contributed to my education and with whom I regret not spending more time. I would also like to thank Carlotta Sorba, Enrico Francia and Matteo Millan, with whom I have discussed the topic of this book over the years.

The greatest thanks, however, are owed to Mario Isnenghi, without whom I would probably never have considered undertaking a PhD. He helped me focus my research on the March on Rome by discussing the subject with keenness and generosity.

There is no need to thank the friends with whom I have shared the ups and downs of my research, writing and life, or indeed my parents they know how indebted I am to them.

The English edition of this volume is dedicated to my husband, Simon Levis Sullam who has provided support at different stages of this project by discussing with me the topics I was investigating and to the many things we share.