A History of Italy Since 1796

The Force of Destiny

A vivid and highly readable history of Italy from the early nineteenth century, when the movement for national unification began, to the present

Christopher Duggan is Professor of Italian History at the University of Reading. He is the author of Fascism and the Mafia.

The greatness of Italy's culture and way of life have had a powerful attraction for many generations of visitors. This has created an overwhelming sense that Italy is a fundamentally benign and easy going country. The Force of Destiny, Christopher Duggan's immensely enjoyable new book, lays waste to this idea. While sharing everyone's enthusiasm for Italy as a place, he strongly distinguishes this from its political role over the past two centuries, which has been both vicious and ruinous for Europe as a whole.

Christopher Duggan

A fascinating exploration of the letters that ‘ordinary’ Italians who supported fascism wrote to Mussolini in the 1920s and 1930s

This original, revealing and disturbing book provides a grassroots view of fascist Italy

Duggan’s superbly researched book uncovers the nasty reality of [Mussolini’s] regime and demonstrates that there was a disturbing symbiotic relationship between fascism and the Catholic Church

In his magnificent new book, a pathbreaking study that everyone interested in Fascism, or in Italy past and present, should read, Christopher Duggan fills the gap by examining a wide range of diaries… This enables Duggan to deliver not merely a detailed account of popular attitudes towards the regime, but, far more, a general history of Fascism that for the first time treats it, not as a tyranny that allowed ordinary Italians no possibility of expressing themselves freely, nor as the brutal dictatorship of a capitalist class that reduced the great majority of the country’s citizens to the status of victims, but as a regime rooted strongly in popular aspirations and desires.

Magnificent...a pathbreaking study that everyone interested in fascism, or in Italy past and present, should read

An elegantly written study that is the work of a historian at the height of his powers

Draws on a vast range of private letters and diaries to find out what ordinary people thought about the regime that ruled them between 1922 and 1945

Draws on a vast range of private letters and diaries

An Intimate History of Mussolini's Italy

Fascist Voices is a fresh and disturbing look at a country in thrall to a charismatic dictator. Tracing fascism from its conception to its legacy, Christopher Duggan unpicks why the regime enjoyed so much support among the majority of the Italian people. He examines the extraordinary hold the Duce had on Italy and how he came to embody fascism. 
 
By making use of rarely examined sources, such as letters and diaries, newspaper reports, secret police files, popular songs and radio broadcasts, Duggan explores how ordinary people experienced fascism on a daily basis; how its ideology influenced politcs, religion and everyday life to the extent that Mussolini's legacy still lingers in Italy today. 
 
WINNER OF THE WOLFSON HISTORY PRIZE

Christopher Duggan

Praise for Fascist Voices

A fascinating exploration of the letters that ‘ordinary’ Italians who supported fascism wrote to Mussolini in the 1920s and 1930s

This original, revealing and disturbing book provides a grassroots view of fascist Italy

Duggan’s superbly researched book uncovers the nasty reality of [Mussolini’s] regime and demonstrates that there was a disturbing symbiotic relationship between fascism and the Catholic Church

A fascinating exploration of the letters that ‘ordinary’ Italians who supported fascism wrote to Mussolini in the 1920s and 1930s

This original, revealing and disturbing book provides a grassroots view of fascist Italy

Duggan’s superbly researched book uncovers the nasty reality of [Mussolini’s] regime and demonstrates that there was a disturbing symbiotic relationship between fascism and the Catholic Church

A fascinating exploration of the letters that ‘ordinary’ Italians who supported fascism wrote to Mussolini in the 1920s and 1930s

This original, revealing and disturbing book provides a grassroots view of fascist Italy

Duggan’s superbly researched book uncovers the nasty reality of [Mussolini’s] regime and demonstrates that there was a disturbing symbiotic relationship between fascism and the Catholic Church

Books by Christopher Duggan

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter