What was the impact of Fascism on the Italian historical profession? From the 1930s through the early 1940s, Italian scholars loyal to the regime could count on a government that supported their work both in the universities and through the establishment of new research institutions. This academic infrastructure served an emerging generation of historians who had begun their careers under the dictatorship, trained by masters who were sympathetic to the Fascist cause. In some of their writings they would come to closely reflect the regime’s political and ideological priorities, particularly with respect to foreign policy. These historians would reevaluate the country’s geopolitical position since the Risorgimento, as well as Italy’s place in Europe and the Mediterranean, in a way that dovetailed with the regime’s ideology of colonial conquest and national grandeur. As Fascism strived to fulfill these historians’ interpretations of Italy’s “destiny,” they in turn distilled and enunciated visions of an Italian world power. This chapter will analyze the intellectual discourse prevalent in the universities, in order to assess the various ways in which Fascist beliefs were gradually assimilated, consciously or unconsciously, by different generations. I will thus examine the reception of Fascist foreign policy objectives not only in the lectures and writings of major Italian historians but also in the tesi di laurea (senior theses) of their young students.

Clio among the Camicie Nere: Italian Historians and their Allegiances to Fascism (1930s-1940s)

ANGELINI, MARGHERITA
2012

Abstract

What was the impact of Fascism on the Italian historical profession? From the 1930s through the early 1940s, Italian scholars loyal to the regime could count on a government that supported their work both in the universities and through the establishment of new research institutions. This academic infrastructure served an emerging generation of historians who had begun their careers under the dictatorship, trained by masters who were sympathetic to the Fascist cause. In some of their writings they would come to closely reflect the regime’s political and ideological priorities, particularly with respect to foreign policy. These historians would reevaluate the country’s geopolitical position since the Risorgimento, as well as Italy’s place in Europe and the Mediterranean, in a way that dovetailed with the regime’s ideology of colonial conquest and national grandeur. As Fascism strived to fulfill these historians’ interpretations of Italy’s “destiny,” they in turn distilled and enunciated visions of an Italian world power. This chapter will analyze the intellectual discourse prevalent in the universities, in order to assess the various ways in which Fascist beliefs were gradually assimilated, consciously or unconsciously, by different generations. I will thus examine the reception of Fascist foreign policy objectives not only in the lectures and writings of major Italian historians but also in the tesi di laurea (senior theses) of their young students.
2012
In the Society of Fascists: Acclamation, Acquiescence and Agency in Mussolini’s Italy
9780230392922
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