Description
Winner of the Helen and Howard R. Marraro Prize
Winner of the Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Italian Studies
A New Statesman Book of the Year
--Sonia Purnell, author of A Woman of No Importance "The brilliance of de Grazia's book lies in the way that she has made a page-turner of Teruzzi's chaotic life, while providing a scholarly and engrossing portrait of the two decades of Fascist rule."
--Caroline Moorhead, Wall Street Journal "Extraordinary...illuminates the ways in which the all-consuming nature of fascism distorted Italian society and destroyed the lives of individuals. I could not put it down."
--Margaret MacMillan, author of Paris 1919 When Attilio Teruzzi, a decorated military officer, married a rising American opera star, his good fortune seemed settled. The wedding was capped with a blessing by Mussolini himself. Yet only three years later, the early convert to the Fascist cause, now commander of the Black Shirts, renounced his wife. Lilliana was Jewish, and fascist Italy would soon introduce its first race laws. The Perfect Fascist pivots from the intimate story of a tempestuous courtship and inconvenient marriage to the operatic spectacle of Mussolini's rise and fall. It invites us to see in the vain, unscrupulous, fanatically loyal Attilio Teruzzi an exemplar of fascism's New Man. De Grazia's landmark history shows how the personal is always political in the fascist quest for manhood and power. In his self-serving pieties and intimate betrayals, his violence and opportunism, Teruzzi was a forefather of the illiberal politicians of today.
Author: Victoria de Grazia
Publisher: Belknap Press
Published: 03/22/2022
Pages: 528
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.65lbs
Size: 8.82h x 5.67w x 1.57d
ISBN13: 9780674271067
ISBN10: 0674271068
BISAC Categories:
- History | Europe | Italy
- Biography & Autobiography | Military
- Political Science | Political Ideologies | Fascism & Totalitarianism