Forum Italicum: A Journal of Italian Studies

This is an introduction to the articles that form the special issue on fascism in Italy and the USA in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s.

The aim of this article is to understand how the New York Times, one of the most important US newspapers, explained the events that set off the ascent of fascism to power in Italy. In particular, I will focus on the period between the march on Rome, after which Mussolini became Prime Minister, and 1925–1926, when a dictatorial turning point, a consolidated position not only in Italian historiography, was imposed on the country. In fact, the march on Rome revealed Mussolini for the first time to the American newspapers (he was previously an almost unknown political entity in the United States), before the infamous speech at the House of Deputies on June 3, 1925, following the assassination of Giacomo Matteotti and the fascistissime laws passed shortly after marked the end of freedom and democracy in Italy. How did the New York Times correspondents explain these events? I answer this question analyzing the most significant articles dedicated to the topic and focusing on the political and ideological stand of the newspaper and on the factors that led it to support the fascist regime at least until the late 1930s.

In his preface to The Social Philosophy of Giovanni Gentile, HS Harris wrote that “[Gentile's] association with Fascism, of which he was an ardent supporter from 1923 until his own death during the last throes of the Fascist Social Republic, prejudiced the issue. Critical evaluation of his political and social thought has been almost impossible for the Italians themselves because of the general climate of political opinion both before and after his death; and almost everyone outside Italy followed the lead given by Croce and dismissed Gentile's practical philosophy as unworthy of serious critical examination.” This statement undoubtedly points at an effective historiographical question. The present article aims to shed light on this issue, taking into consideration specifically the writings published about Gentile in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s. Some research has already been undertaken in this field, but it seems ripe for being further developed. Interest in the work of Gentile came especially from the intellectual circles of Columbia University and his work has usually been interpreted by historians as resulting from pro-fascist leanings. Yet, a closer examination of sources and consequently a more analytical reconstruction of the context suggests that the reception of the educational thought of Gentile and the knowledge of his political activity during the Fascist regime took place in the United States quite independently from political sympathies.

In the era between the two world wars, the spread of corporatist laws and institutions in many countries, flourishing mostly in the 1930s, was marked by a transnational hybridization of projects and experiences. Against this background, the Italian corporatist state became a milestone for many intellectuals and politicians not only in Europe but also on the American continent. This article deals with the transatlantic influence of the corporatist Fascist laboratory, focusing on the reception of this political option and the debate about it in New Deal's United States. In particular, some case studies will be considered to observe how corporatism was a key factor in legitimizing Fascism even in democratic circles, despite the criticisms of the Italian regime from anti-fascists in exile. In USA, in fact, the impact of the Great Depression increased the popularity of this alternative, partly because Italy seemed less affected by the economic crisis than other states. While in the 1920s the Fascist corporatist experiment had drawn the attention of some secondary intellectuals, in the 1930s it became a matter of reflection even within President Franklin Roosevelt's progressive entourage. For example, economist Rexford Tugwell wrote in his diary that Italian corporatist order was “The cleanest, neatest, most effectively operating piece of social machinery I’ve ever seen. It makes me envious.”

This article reconstructs the steps that, starting in 1928–1929, led to the planning of Italo Balbo's most famous transatlantic flights. These events were characterized by a narrative that addressed different domestic and international audiences and used a multimedia communication strategy.

Studies have highlighted the role of fascism in shaping Italian immigrants in the United States and their progeny into a pressure group that influenced Washington's foreign policy to the benefit of Italy. That interpretation has drawn primarily on Italian Americans’ mobilization to prevent the US Congress from passing sanctions against Mussolini's regime during the Ethiopian War and to financially support that colonial venture. Yet, fascism initially hesitated to resort to Italian Americans’ lobbying potential. The exploitation of their political clout implied the newcomers’ acquisition of US citizenship and their children's disavowal of their parents’ nationality. This course of action apparently conflicted with the retention of the immigrants’ allegiance to the homeland and, consequently, met the opposition of Fascist ideologues in Italy and of leaders of the fasci in the United States. Furthermore, contrary to conventional scholarly wisdom, Mussolini's regime conceived nothing new when it urged Italian Americans to mobilize politically and forged them into a pro-Fascist lobby. Rather, it replicated a strategy that Vittorio Rolandi Ricci, the last Liberal ambassador in Washington, had already envisaged.