{"id":3972,"date":"2014-09-29T23:07:49","date_gmt":"2014-09-30T03:07:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/quallsk\/?p=3972"},"modified":"2014-09-29T23:07:49","modified_gmt":"2014-09-30T03:07:49","slug":"the-mussolini-myth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/quallsk\/2014\/09\/29\/the-mussolini-myth\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mussolini Myth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Mussolini&#8217;s legend remains comparatively shrouded alongside Stalin and Hitler\u00a0in the context of understanding the evolution of dictatorship and the perception of state leaders throughout interwar Europe. Historians consistently\u00a0credit these leaders with having tremendous amounts of\u00a0<em>charisma\u00a0<\/em>favorably coupled with an appeal that the masses embraced with certainty.\u00a0Mussolini&#8217;s mythic status, however, proves increasingly &#8220;hollow&#8221; in its analysis relative to his German and Russian counterparts. (60) Why?<\/p>\n<p>B.J.B Bosworth, author of &#8220;Mussolini the Duce,&#8221; claims Mussolini&#8217;s status as Italy&#8217;s\u00a0<em>padreterno <\/em>or <em>eternal father\u00a0<\/em>merely reflected the superficial nature of the original Fascist regime; that the spirit of Mussolini materialized from the desires of Italians themselves and his self-perpetuated image manifested as a Ceasar esque figure. (65) Bosworth attempts to disillusion his audience by using primary sources to clarify that the process of Mussolini&#8217;s ascension to deific status mostly lended itself to self-promoting propaganda and not his realistic influence.<\/p>\n<p>Although Bosworth criticizes Mussolini&#8217;s\u00a0legitimacy\u00a0regarding his reputation, he concludes the article by inserting the historiographical element that not enough is known about Mussolini&#8217;s direct relationship to Fascism to truly understand\u00a0<em>how\u00a0<\/em>the soul of Mussolini came to be. (81)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #373737\">B.J.B Bosworth, \u201cMussolini the Duce; Sawdust Caesar, Roman Statesman or Dictator Minor?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><em style=\"font-style: italic;color: #373737\">The Italian Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives in the Interpretation of Mussolini and Fascism<\/em><span style=\"color: #373737\">, London: Arnold, 1998.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mussolini&#8217;s legend remains comparatively shrouded alongside Stalin and Hitler\u00a0in the context of understanding the evolution of dictatorship and the perception of state leaders throughout interwar Europe. Historians consistently\u00a0credit these leaders with having tremendous amounts of\u00a0charisma\u00a0favorably coupled with an appeal that &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/quallsk\/2014\/09\/29\/the-mussolini-myth\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1148,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51180],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/quallsk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/quallsk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/quallsk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/quallsk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/quallsk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/quallsk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3972\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/quallsk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/quallsk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/quallsk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}