Exporting Fascism: Italian Fascists and Britain's Italians in the 1930s

Description

How did Italians living in Britain respond to Mussolini's fascism? What links did ex-pat fascists forge with the British Right? To what extent did Italophilia exist in Britain during the Mussolini years? Exporting Fascism addresses these questions, which have long been ignored by historians. While there is much material available about Nazi sympathizers in the United Kingdom, there is comparatively very little about Italophile fascist sympathizers. The author uncovers the policy of Mussolini's government to transform Italian communities abroad into 'little Fascist Italies'. Ambassador Dino Grandi had great success in the fascistization campaign of Italian emigrants through such means as Italian community newspapers and fascist summer camps and schools. The author also examines the links forged between Italian fascism and the British Right. Specifically, she uncovers the Italophilia that dominated the British Union of Fascists (BUF) in the first half of the 1930s, later to be replaced with an admiration for National Socialism. She also examines the BUF's activities within Italy, which have thus far remained almost entirely unknown. Exporting Fascism sheds new light on a neglected aspect of the international fascist movement at the dawn of the Second World War.

Claudia Baldoli Sessional Lecturer,Birkbeck College and Research Fellow, Comitato Nazionale 'Italia nel Mondo', Rome

'Badoli's study is well documented, clearly written, and interstingly presented...shedding light on several aspects of Mussolini's regime, its ideology, myths, and policies.' Modern Language Review 'This impressive book illuminates the social history of the Italian immigrant community, the politics of Il Duce's British admirers, and the international tensions born of Mussolini's bellicose fanaticism.' MacGregor Knox, The London School of Economics and Political Science 'Claudia Baldoli's highly readable book restores a small but important section in the vast mosaic which makes up a full picture of Mussolini'sregime. It also demonstrates a combination of archival scholarship and sound historiographical technique with a sophisticated (and jargon-free!) grasp of the mythic dynamics of Fascism undistorted by personal ideological preconceptions.' Roger Griffin, Oxford Brookes University