Mussolini's Intellectuals: Fascist Social and Political Thought

296 Pages·2004·3.17 MB·English

by  A. James Gregor

MUSSOLINI’S INTELLECTUALS
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MUSSOLINI’S INTELLECTUALS
FASCIST SOCIAL AND
POLITICAL THOUGHT
A. James Gregor
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON AND OXFORD
Copyright©2005byPrincetonUniversityPress
PublishedbyPrincetonUniversityPress,41WilliamStreet,
Princeton,NewJersey08540
IntheUnitedKingdom:PrincetonUniversityPress,
3MarketPlace,Woodstock,OxfordshireOX201SY
AllRightsReserved
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Gregor,A.James(AnthonyJames),1929–
Mussolini’sintellectuals:fascistsocialandpoliticalthought/
A.JamesGregor.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN:0-691-12009-9(acid-freepaper)
1.Fascism—Italy—History—20thcentury.2.Intellectuals—Italy—
History—20thcentury.3.Intellectuals—Italy—Politicalactivity—History—
20thcentury.4.Italy—Intellectuallife—20thcentury.5.Italy—Politicsand
government—20thcentury.I.Title.
DG571.G7342005
320.53′3′094509042—dc22 2004049133
BritishLibraryCataloging-in-PublicationDataisavailable
ThisbookhasbeencomposedinSabon
Printedonacid-freepaper.∞
pup.princeton.edu
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
The work embodied in this book is dedicated
to all those who, willingly and unwillingly,
accompanied me on my journey.
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Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xi
ChapterOne
SomeIssuesintheIntellectualHistoryofFascism 1
ChapterTwo
TheHistoricBackgroundandEnricoCorradini 18
ChapterThree
AlfredoRoccoandtheElementsofFascistDoctrine 38
ChapterFour
SergioPanunzio:FromRevolutionarytoNationalSyndicalism 61
ChapterFive
Idealism,UgoSpirito,andtheOutlinesofFascistDoctrine 85
ChapterSix
UgoSpiritoandtheRationaleoftheCorporativeState 111
ChapterSeven
SergioPanunzioandtheMaturingofFascistDoctrine 140
ChapterEight
CamilloPellizzi,CarloCostamagna,andtheFinalIssues 165
ChapterNine
DoctrinalInterlude:TheInitiaticRacismofJuliusEvola 191
ChapterTen
DoctrinalContinuityandtheFascistSocialRepublic 222
ChapterEleven
Conclusions 246
Index 263
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Preface
THIS BOOKappears afteralmost four decadesof study,conferences, dis-
cussion, and publication. Over those years, students of “fascism,”1 as a
subject of inquiry, have seen its “essence” change, in the judgments of
scholars,fromamovementofthe“extremeright”intoonethatwasnei-
therofthe“right”northe“left.”2Wearenowtoldthat“Fascistideology
represented a synthesis of organic nationalism with the antimaterialist
revisionofMarxism.”3
Fromapoliticalrevolutionentirelywithoutanypretenseofarational
belief system, we are now told, by those best informed, that “fascism’s
ability to appeal to important intellectuals ... underlines that it cannot
bedismissedas...irrational....[In]truth,fascismwasanideologyjust
liketheothers.”4Moreover,ithasbeenacknowledgedthat“Fascismwas
possibleonlyifbasedongenuinebelief.”5
Ineffect,thestudyofItalianFascismhasdelivereditselfofsignificantly
altered assessments over the past decades. Where, at one time, Fascism
wassimplydismissedasaphenomenonunderstoodtobewithoutintellec-
tual substance, a right-wing excrescence that invoked violence and war,
it is now more and more regularly understood to be a movement, and
a regime, predicated on a reasonably well articulated belief system that
engagedtherationalcommitmentofmany.
Forallthat,thereremainsaresidueofopinionthatcontinuestodeny
Fascismthesamereasonedbeliefsthateveryonereadilygrantstothepolit-
icalmovementsandregimesofJosephStalinorMaoZedong.Wearestill
told, for example, that unlike Stalinism and Maoism, “Fascism had few
truebelieverswhocouldalsowritearticlesandbooks.”6Strange.
Oneoftheprincipalpurposesofthepresentworkistoattempttochal-
lengesuchnotions.Fascistintellectualswroteandpublishedasmanyarti-
1Generallythelowercase“fascism”referstoaclassofmovementsorregimes.Theterm
“Fascism,”capitalized,referstoMussolini’spoliticalmovementandregime.
2“Fascism did not belong to the extreme Left, yet defining it as part of the extreme
Rightisnotveryilluminatingeither.Inmanyrespects,fascismwasnotconservativeatallin
inspiration.”WalterLaqueur,Fascism:Past,Present,Future(NewYork:OxfordUniversity
Press,1999),p.13.
3ZeevSternhell,TheBirthofFascistIdeology:FromCulturalRebelliontoPoliticalRev-
olution(Princeton:PrincetonUniversityPress,1994),p.6.
4RogerEatwell,Fascism:AHistory(NewYork:PenguinBooks,1997),pp.xix–xx,4.
5Laqueur,Fascism,p.27.
6Ibid.,p.97.