Mussolini: The Rise and Fall of Il Duce: The Rise and Fall of Il Duce

by Christopher Hibbert

Overview

With his signature insight and compelling style, Christopher Hibbert explains the extraordinary complexities and contradictions that characterized Benito Mussolini. Mussolini was born on a Sunday afternoon in 1883 in a village in central Italy. On a Saturday afternoon in 1945 he was shot by Communist partisans on the shores of Lake Como. In the sixty-two years in between those two fateful afternoons Mussolini lived one of the most dramatic lives in modern history. Hibbert traces Mussolini's unstoppable rise to power and details the nuances of his facist ideology. This book examines Mussolini's legacy and reveals why he continues to be both revered and reviled by the Italian people.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780230606050
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	07/22/2008
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	567,753
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Christopher Hibbert, "a pearl of biographers" (New Statesman), is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the author of many highly acclaimed books, including Disraeli, Edward VII, George VI, The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici, and Cavaliers and Roundheads. He lives in Henley-on-Thames, England.

Table of Contents

Illustrations     vii
Family Tree showing Mussolini's Ancestry and Descendants     ix
Foreword     xi
Preface     xv
The Fight for Power
The Young Rebel 29 July 1883-December 1912     2
The Interventionist October 1913-24 May 1915     19
The Fascist in the Making August 1915-28 October 1922     24
The head of the Government 28 October 1922-13 June 1924     35
The Dictator 13 June 1924-10 June 1940     47
Empire and Axis
The Diplomat 28 October 1922-10 June 1940     66
The Commander-in-Chief 10 June 1940-23 October 1942     127
The Fall of the Colossus
'The War is Going Badly' 23 October 1942-23 January 1943     146
The Conspirators November 1942-24 July 1943     160
The Grand Council Meeting 24-25 July 1943     173
The Arrest at Villa Savoia 25 July 1943     192
The Prisoner 25 July 1943-28 August 1943     196
On the Gran Sasso 28 August 1943-12 September 1943     217
The Rescue from Gran Sasso 12 September 1943     223
The Meeting at the Fuhrer's Headquarters 15 September 1943     236
The President at Gargnano-The First Year 27 September 1943-27 September 1944     241
The Civil War November 1943-December 1944     268
The President at Gargnano-The Final Months December 1944-April 1945     274
The Germans Surrender February-April 1945     282
The Move to Milan 19-25 April 1945     286
The Flight from Milan 25-27 April 1945     298
The Capture 27 April 1945     310
'Colonel Valerio' 27-28 April 1945     322
Death at Villa Belmonte 28 April 1945     328
The Piazzale Loreto 29 April 1945     333
Notes on Sources     335
Bibliography     346
Index     356

Editorial Reviews

Christopher Hibbert is a wonderful narrative historian who has illuminated many corners of Italian life and history. He has the gift of creating scenes and characters, of rendering the vividness of the past. His Mussolini is no exception. He manages to convey both the charisma and dilettantismo of Mussolini the revolutionary leader as well as the later folly of Il Duce, the dictator who began increasingly to believe his own rhetoric — ''Mussolini is always right' — in leading his country into World War and ruin.” —Alexander Stille, award-winning author of Benevolence and Betrayal: Five Italian-Jewish Families Under Fascism, and of The Sack of Rome: Media + Money + Celebrity = Power = Silvio Berlusconi

“Hibbert is a remarkably prolific popular historian, who can take on almost anything, from Dickens to General Wolfe, from Agincourt to Garibaldi.” —The Observer

“An excellent account...balanced and perceptive in outlook...well-written and entertaining.” —Economist

“[Hibbert] is a superbly skillful historical writer.” —The Spectator

“An adroitly written evocation of a compelling but enigmatic personality, a man whose ambition, idealism and opportunism would not seem out of place on the political scene today.” —Publishers Weekly on Disraeli

“Hibbert's lively and engaging portrait of Benjamin Disraeli joins the author's numerous other well-received, popular biographies...A supremely readable and enjoyable study of a colorful, often astonishing and modern character.” —Library Journal on Disraeli

From the Publisher