Italy's Fascist Era: Historical Perspectives and Contemporary Debates

Catalog description

The course explores the interplay between Colonialism and Racism during the Fascist regime in Italy (1922-1945) and its legacy in modern-day Italy. After a few introductory lessons on Fascism, its ideology, and its takeover of Italy, the course will move to an analysis of Italian colonialism in Africa and explore how Fascist ideas of race influenced it. The course will also examine matters "internal" to Italy, such as the discrimination of non-Italian communities (German, Slavs, Greeks) as well as the Jewish people living in the country, framing the Racial Laws and the Italian participation in the Holocaust in the broader picture of the Fascist project to create a "new Italian".