Mussolini's Empire: How the Fascists Ruled in Africa
FAIN: FT-255128-17
Michael R. Ebner
Syracuse University (Syracuse, NY 13244-0001)
A monograph on Italy’s empire in Africa (1922-1943).
'Mussolini’s Empire,’ a newly begun book-length project, examines Fascist rule in Italy’s African colonies (Libya, Eritrea, Somalia, Ethiopia) between 1922 and 1943. Building upon new research on violence and atrocity within European empires, the book will analyze Italy’s conquest of African territories through the lens of violence. Arguing that Mussolini’s quest for 'spazio vitale' (vital space) constituted the culmination of Fascist Italy’s political and social project, ‘Mussolini’s Empire’ will make the case that, for Fascists, the violence of empire building constituted the means and end for creating both a new Italian (the new “Fascist man”) and the newly fashioned, “inferior” colonial subjects over whom the Italians would rule. The book will also interpret Italian Fascist imperialism as a coherent, distinct system of rule that featured elements of both nineteenth-century (French, British) and twentieth-century totalitarian imperialisms (German, Japanese).