R. J. B. Bosworth. Mussolini's Italy: Life Under the Dictatorship, 1915-1945. London: Penguin, 2006. I have plenty of books on generic fascism, German fascism, British fascism ... so one on the original fascism doesn't seem excessive!
Paul Kennedy. The Parliament of Man: The United Nations and the Quest for World Government. London: Allen Lane, 2006. Only one chapter on the pre-1945 period, mostly the League of Nations of course. Actually I should track down a decent history of the League one day.
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Kurt Niehaus
I am very interested in how "Mussolini's Italy" turns out. Could you please write up a recommendation (to buy or not as the case may be) when you are finished?
I took a Faschism and Nazism class in undergrad at Penn State. Great class, but focused only on German F+N. (We were told this would be the case on the first day of class) I was hoping for a politics class comparing and contrasting Faschism in Germany, Italy and Spain. Enough was said about the military build up to keep me interested though.
Brett Holman
Post authorI'll try to remember -- it might take me a while to get around to it though, given the size of my unread pile! I've read a couple of good reviews of it, and I can say that it looks the goods -- it's certainly long enough (over 500 pages). As I understand it, Bosworth is one of the top people on Fascism, at leats in English, so that augurs well.
I was lucky to be able to do a 4th year subject on fascist Europe which was brilliant -- Italy, Germany, Spain, Hungary, Romania and so on -- sounds like the sort of thing you were hoping for.