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Fascism in Italian Historiography: In Search of an Individual Historical Identity

During the last two decades there has been a great interest in the study of fascism indeed within Italy it has become one of the most productive fields of historical research. In 1976 the editors of the Journal of Contemporary History, publishing a second special issue on fascism after ten years, observed: 'The field of Italian fascism has perhaps registered the most spectacular progress during the past decade'. 1 The historiographical output in this field has continued unabated, if at a steadier pace and with less originality, since 1976. Dozens of pages would be required merely to list the books and articles on fascism published by Italian historians in the last twenty years. Accordingly, we will restrict ourselves to considerations of a more general nature, examining the problems that have aroused the greatest interest and are the most significant for the evaluation of the changes and innovations which have come about in the Italian historiography of fascism during the last two decades. One basic question which has been at the root of the traditional interpretation of fascism directs our inquiry: did fascism originate from other phenomena, that is to say was it an instrument of other forces, or was it rather a phenomenon with its own individual historical identity and dynamism? The problem concerns the definition of fascism as such, its social bases, its concept of man and politics, its relationship with the masses and the forms of power which it assumed. Does the analysis of these elements allow us to identify fascism as having its own historical identity? This is a fundamental question since it runs counter to the very possibility of conceiving of and depicting a 'history of fascism' which would not be reduced to a 'history of Italy between the two world wars', but would rather be, first and foremost, the history of a specific reality which, if it in fact existed as such, should be characterized in its own terms as a political movement and regime. This, then, is the first task of the historian of fascism. From the answers to this question put forward