A quaderno [exercise book] from the Fascist period L’intervento [The Intervention]

Focus on the cover of this school book which was probably published in the 1930s.

Describe the cover and consider

 What do you think it is happening?  From the clothing, who do you think the people in the illustration are?  Which ‘intervention’ could this be?  What emotional response is this image trying to elicit?

Now turn over and read the passage on the back of the cover.

A MAN AND AN EMPIRE

THE INTERVENTION

From school teacher to migrant, from bricklayer to student, that child born in Predappio, continued to find his path in the world.

He was the editor of an important newspaper in Milan when the dark clouds swept over the sky. They had killed an Austrian Prince, and Austria and Germany went to war against Serbia, Russia, France, and even Belgium (even though the latter was not at all involved).

And us Italians? Benito Mussolini began to say that it was time to free Trento, Trieste, Fiume, Pola and Zara; all the countries Austria was lording over [spadroneggiava], despite the fact that God had made them Italian in the mountains, rivers and seas of Italy. Among the very few who right from the start were speaking out there was a poet, Gabriele d’Annunzio, who later went to war over land, sea and air, despite the fact that he was no longer young. There was also Filippo Corridoni, a young ill worker, who even then wanted all workers united in corporations and syndicates and who died during that war. There were the Italians from Trentino and Istria—Battisti, Filzi and Sauro—who wanted to free their lands. There were boys who were merely fourteen, like Roberto Sarfatti, who later died fighting as heroes. And there was Benito Mussolini, who launched a new newspaper to preach the war against Austria.

And thus for the first time one could see young and old, workers, students and layers, holding arms in the streets, under the nose of the guards who were trying to stop them, crying: “Viva la guerra, viva l’Italia”.

Margherita G. Sarfatti

1) In general, how is the ‘child born in Predappio’ portrayed in this passage?

2) The secon paragraph talks of the start of the Great War. Is this a fair portrayal of the political situation in Italy and Europe at the time?

3) Focus on the third paragraph. What justifications are put forward for Italy’s intervention? Discuss and consider in relation to the way Italian history was taught under Fascism?

4) There are a number of people who are singled out: why are they important? Why do you think the writer has chosen to focus on them?

5) Look at the cover again. Are text and image saying the same thing? Reflect on the visual and written message? What could one say about the differences between the two?

6) Now look at the photograph of an interventist rally in Piazza Cordusio a Milano (1915). Is the quaderno you have studied a fair portrayal of historical reality?

7) Why do think was Margherita Sarfatti chosen to write the text in this quaderno?

8) Reflect on the role of propaganda in primary schools. How can this quaderno help us to understand how Italian children became ‘fascist’?

9) Consider the wider role of Fascist organizations aimed at children and young people. Were they effective in turning the Italians into a Fascist nation?

10) Fascism had a number of foundational myths (such as ‘The March on Rome’). Does thsi quaderno help us to understanding how these myths were made popular?