The cult of the

Mussolini and the Italians

Edited by Stephen Gundle, Christopher Duggan and Giuliana Pieri

Manchester University Press

Manchester and New York

distributed in the United States exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan Contents

List of illustrations vii Notes on contributors ix

introduction 1 Stephen Gundle, Christopher Duggan and Giuliana Pieri

Part I THE ORIGINS OF A PERSONALITY CULT

1 Political cults in liberal Italy, 1861-1922 1.1 Christopher Duggan 2 The propagation of the cult of the Duce, 1925-26 27 Christopher Duggan 3 and the invention of the Duce 41 Simona Storchi 4 Sanity from a lunatic asylum: 's threat to Mussolini's image 57 Daniela Baratieri 5 Mass culture and the cult of personality 72 Stephen Gundle

Part II THE DUCE AND THE REGIME

6 A town for the cult of the Duce: Predappio as a site of pilgrimage 93 Sofia Serenelli 7 Mussolini's appearances in the regions 110 Stephen Gundle 8 The internalisation of the cult of the Duce: the evidence of diaries and letters 129 Ch ristopher Dugga n 9 Mussolini and the Italian Empire, 1935—41 144 Giuseppe Finaldi Contents

Part III THE ICONOGRAPHY OF THE DUCE

10 Portraits of the Duce Giuliana Pieri 11 Photographing Mussolini Alessandra Antola 12 Mussolini as monument: the equestrian statue of the Duce at the Littoriale Stadium in Bologna Simona Storchi 13 Mussolini and the city of Rome Eugene Pooley

Part IV AFTER THE FALL OF

14 The destiny of the art and artefacts Giuliana Pieri 15 The aftermath of the Mussolini cult: history, nostalgia and popular culture Stephen Gundle 16 Mussolini and post-war Italian television Vanessa Roghi

Afterword R.J.B. Bosworth

Index