A detailed description of the sources, beginnings and seizure of power of both fascism in Italy in 1922 and Nazism in Germany in 1933. The invention of fascism, the immediate background of the movements, the successes and failures of the movements, not only in Italy and Germany, but also in many other countries in Europe-France, Spain- there are about two hundred thousand people were killed by Franco after his victory against the Spanish Republicans in March 1939 -p149- , UK, Romania, Hungary- although without being fully successful, how these movements get power and exercise it; how they work their strategies through coalition with conservatives and other parties, the role of the charismatic leader, the establishment of a dual parallel state, and what is endly the definition of fascism. War was a common project for both: the Fuhrer & the Doci: Hitler told Goebbels “the war…made possible for us the solution of a whole series of problems that could never have been solved in normal times”-p 155; while Mussolini told his son-in law and foreign minister : “the character of the Italian people must be molded by fighting….War is to men as maternity is to women”, p 156. Fascist regimes “could not survive without the the acquisition of new territory for their “race”-Lebensraum, spazio vital-” p 157. One of the reasons for both the Doci’s decision to invade Ethiopia in 1933-34 and the Fuhrer invasion of Poland in 1939.
All these questions posed by the author and his trial to answer them in 8 chapters & through 321 pages of the book- the excessive notes and references; the ramifications and role of the intellectual, economic, cultural and emotional factors of these movements that plunged the whole world in World War 11, 1939-45, with almost 70-85 million victims, the deadliest conflict in human history – is a great historical lesson to our generation to try all they can to prevent a revival of those horrors, whose precursors are already seen in many corners of nowadays World: Ukraine, Palestine: Genocide in Gaza, the invasion of the congress of the US Capitol in January 6, 2021 …etc. Weapon firms are doubling their benefits & profits from all wars waged recently in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine & Ukraine. Politicians, World Wild, were largely reduced to representatives for those Corporations, mainly weaponry and the heavy expenses spent on armaments at the expense of education, milieu, health sector, and vital civil services . Although written two decades ago, and other 12,208 books & articles were written only on Fascism, documented by Rernzo De Felice- as the author noted p.221, it is so relevant to read this book in 2025, if we want to learn lessons from the horrors of yesterday’s history, and to evade another Hiroshima and Nagasaki Catastrophes.
