UBC: Italo Balbo

[truepenny]

Segre*, Claudio G. Italo Balbo: A Fascist Life. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987.

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After The Brutal Friendship, I wanted to read something that would tell me more about Italian fascism. This biography (which was required reading in one of mirrorthaw's classes, many years ago) was what we had in the house, and mirrorthaw said enthusiastically, "It's very good." Which it is. And it did give me a better grasp of Italian fascism. (Short version: what a horrible mess.)

Italo Balbo was a contradictory man, although probably best summed up by the word "swashbuckler." I swung back and forth between admiring and loathing him--although at that, he fared better than Mussolini, whom I despise more intensely with every new thing I learn about him. Segre is very upfront about the flaws in Balbo's character; he spends a lot of time assessing Balbo against (a.) Balbo's own valuation, (b.) his contemporaries' valuations, (c.) the opinions of historians. Mostly, Segre concludes that Balbo wasn't as grand and glorious as he believed himself to be, but he was by and large a better and more competent man than his detractors claim--although still a corrupt cog in a corrupt machine, a tyrant who saw nothing wrong in social inequality so long as he was at the top of the heap and who delighted in using violence to get his own way.


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*On the front cover, spine, title page, and copyright page, the author's name is rendered Segrè. On the back cover, it is rendered Segré. In the New York Times obituary, it is rendered Segre, with no accent at all. I apologize to the memory of Dr. Segre, but I cannot figure out the correct orthography of his name.

Comments

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

Have you read Luigi Barzini's The Italians? It has an interesting chapter on Mussolini, which made me draw some comparisons to George W. Bush when I read it.

[libskrat]

On the off chance he'd written a book, I checked viaf.org; it agrees upon Segrè (except, for some reason, the Germans?).

I usually trust librarians to get this stuff right. :)

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

My British edition agrees with your copyright page.

The shape of the story of Italian fascism is quite different and more complicated than the more familiar story of the Third Reich. The useful third point on that triangle is Franco, but I cannot recommend any good books on Franco's Spain, all the ones I read were flawed in weird directions. But it's worth considering if you're looking at this context, because it went on and on and on.