Father and Son

Abstract

The explanation of Benito Mussolini’s wild story is to be found, first, in the regional and family roots from which he came, then in the ideas that influenced him, and most broadly in the political, social, and economic crucible that was Italy’s history—and in his own internal demons. Mussolini himself recognized the influence of his early environment on his later development. In the 1920s, when he was the Duce of Fascism and dictator of Italy, he manipulated the image of his parents to feed his own mythology. The Fascist propaganda machine imbued the memory of his mother with saint-like status, and in his Autobiography, ghostwritten by his brother Arnaldo, he is quoted as saying, “My greatest love was for my mother. She was so quiet, so tender, and yet so strong. Her name was Rosa.” Mussolini’s assessment of his father Alessandro, who, because of his radical politics was all but forgotten during the Fascist regime, was more accurate: “If my father had been another kind of man, I would have turned out entirely different.”¹

†The late Philip Cannistraro was a noted historian of fascism. This chapter was put together using his notes.