Mussolini's Nation-Empire: Sovereignty and Settlement in Italy's Borderlands, 1922–1943 (New Studies in European History)
Cambridge University Press, 11/2/2017
EAN 9781108419741, ISBN10: 1108419747
Hardcover, 296 pages, 22.8 x 15.2 x 2 cm
Language: English
Roberta Pergher transforms our understanding of Fascist rule. Examining Fascist Italy's efforts to control the antipodes of its realm - the regions annexed in northern Italy after the First World War, and Italy's North African colonies - she shows how the regime struggled to imagine and implement Italian sovereignty over alien territories and peoples. Contrary to the claims of existing scholarship, Fascist settlement policy in these regions was not designed to solve an overpopulation problem, but to bolster Italian claims to rule in an era that prized self-determination and no longer saw imperial claims as self-evident. Professor Pergher explores the character and impact of Fascist settlement policy and the degree to which ordinary Italians participated in and challenged the regime's efforts to Italianize contested territory. Employing models and concepts from the historiography of empire, she shows how Fascist Italy rethought the boundaries between national and imperial rule.
Introduction
1. The boundaries of sovereignty
Italian rule in contested territories
2. Settlement and sovereignty from the Alps to Africa. 3. Divided by a common language
the regime and the settlers
4. Other subjects, other citizens
the regime and the native populations
5. 'Inviolable' borders
land, people and the Option Agreement between Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy
Conclusion
Mussolini's Nation-Empire.