Sacrifice: My Life in a Fascist Militia

by Alessandro Orsini, Sarah J. Nodes (Translator)

Overview

Alessandro Orsini is one of Italy's premier analysts of political extremism. His investigation of the beliefs and mind-sets of Europe's political fringe has largely focused on anarchist and far-left groups, but in Sacrifice he turns his inquiry to the rapidly expanding neofascist movement. He joined local groups of a neofascist organization he names Sacrifice in two neighboring cities with very different political cultures. In this gripping, "insider" book, which features dialogues with various militia members, Orsini shows how fascists live day to day, how they understand their world, and how they build a parallel universe in which the correctness and probity of their attitudes are clear.

Orsini describes the long, troubled process by which these two groups slowly accepted him as an investigatoractivist and later expelled him for his ideologically uncommitted stance and refusal to subject his observations to censorship. His activities as a fascist were often mundane: leafleting, distributing food parcels to the indigent, and attending public rallies. In Sacrifice, Orsini describes from within the masculine ethos of the militias, the groups' relations with local police and politicians, and the central role of violence and anticommunist actions in building a sense of fascist community.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501709838
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	09/15/2017
Pages:	228
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Alessandro Orsini is Director of the Observatory on International Security at LUISS University of Rome, Department of Political Science, and Research Affiliate at the Center for International Studies of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the author of Anatomy of the Red Brigades, also from Cornell. Sarah Jane Nodes is a translator who lives in Rome.

Table of Contents

Preface
1. The Organization of Education
2. In Praise of Suicide
3. The Construction of the Parallel World
4. The War against the Far-Left Extremists
5. Living with Contempt
6. From a Fascist Perspective
7. The Great Fight
8. Soldiers Who Fight and Soldiers Who Don't
9. My Expulsion
Acknowledgments
Notes

What People are Saying About This

Clark McCauley

Vivid reporting and suspense as an Italian professor joins a militant fascist gang. This is social science in action—a page-turner for sure!

Roger Griffin

Alessandro Orsini invested intensive field research and anthropological study into understanding the sacrality of the anti-bourgeois struggle for Italy's left-wing terrorists. Now he has applied his insights to making sense of how political violence is generated from within a small, hierarchical neo-fascist cult. The result is a new genre of academic analysis where sociology, ethnography, psychology, and history merge with field journal, documentary, cinema verité, autobiography, and journalism. The dynamics of a single cell of fanaticism are uniquely revealed in a way which makes the vast ideological monsters generating political violence in the modern world all the more intelligible, all the more human, and all the more disturbing.

Kathleen Blee

A stunning rendering of life inside a fascist militia, exposing the raw exhilaration of violence that lies at this heart of this frightening world.

Editorial Reviews

For those interested in how individuals actually live day-to-day according to Fascist ideology, Sacrifice is an important contribution. It will be especially appealing to scholars of contemporary far-right social movements who want to move beyond more abstract scholarly treatments of the subject and hear from the Fascists themselves. Throughout the book Orsini weaves together the voices of militants with his analysis of their beliefs and actions.

Journal of Political and Military Sociology

a rattling good (and well translated) yarn as Orsini relates the derring-do of the cells' leading members.... In a short book, the author finds time to reveal his father's cancer, his mother's appalled reaction to his research project and his various female partners' responses to his dealings with the Fascists. He also reflects on how and why he organised his research, with the disarming admission that, in following up his lengthier account of the leftist Red Brigades, he searched for 'an interesting idea that would allow me to call into question conventional thinking about particular political phenomena'.

Times Higher Education

At the end, Orsini writes that part of his motivation for the book came from when he was young and witnessed a childhood friend grow disaffected. After failing exams and feeling adrift, the friend went from an easygoing joker to a Fascist group member. Orsini concludes that, for himself, 'The most effective way to fight violence is to get to know it.'

Washington Independent Review of Books - David A. Taylor

"a rattling good (and well translated) yarn as Orsini relates the derring-do of the cells' leading members.... In a short book, the author finds time to reveal his father's cancer, his mother's appalled reaction to his research project and his various female partners' responses to his dealings with the Fascists. He also reflects on how and why he organised his research, with the disarming admission that, in following up his lengthier account of the leftist Red Brigades, he searched for 'an interesting idea that would allow me to call into question conventional thinking about particular political phenomena'."

times higher education

"Vivid reporting and suspense as an Italian professor joins a militant fascist gang. This is social science in action—a page-turner for sure!"

Clark McCauley

"A stunning rendering of life inside a fascist militia, exposing the raw exhilaration of violence that lies at this heart of this frightening world."

Kathleen Blee

"Alessandro Orsini invested intensive field research and anthropological study into understanding the sacrality of the anti-bourgeois struggle for Italy's left-wing terrorists. Now he has applied his insights to making sense of how political violence is generated from within a small, hierarchical neo-fascist cult. The result is a new genre of academic analysis where sociology, ethnography, psychology, and history merge with field journal, documentary, cinema verité, autobiography, and journalism. The dynamics of a single cell of fanaticism are uniquely revealed in a way which makes the vast ideological monsters generating political violence in the modern world all the more intelligible, all the more human, and all the more disturbing."

Roger Griffin