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AMAZON BOOKS - BIOGRAPHIES
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NOTE: STORMO! Recommended Books are denoted by the symbol 
5 Symbols represents the highest scrore.
Rescuing Mussolini: Gran Sasso 1943 (Raid) Paperback – April 20, 2010 by Robert Forczyk (Author), Howard Gerrard (Illustrator), Donato Spedaliere (Illustrator)
The successful rescue of imprisoned Italian dictator Benito Mussolini from atop the Gran Sasso plateau by German glider-borne troops on 12 September 1943 was one of the most dramatic Special Forces operations in military history. Arrested by his own officers in July 1943, Mussolini had been whisked away to an isolated and heavily-guarded mountain-top resort, the Hotel Campo Imperatore at Gran Sasso, which could only be reached by a heavily guarded cable car station. It was clear to the Germans - who wished to rescue Mussolini in order to keep at least the appearance that Italy was still on the Axis side - that any conventional rescue operation would have to fight its way through too much opposition and that Mussolini's captors would have ample time to execute him before he could be rescued. Once Mussolini's location at Gran Sasso was confirmed, Hitler ordered General der Fallschirmtruppe Kurt Student to organize a rescue mission. The actual raid was planned and led by paratrooper Major Otto Mors from the Fallschirmjager-Lehr Bataillon, but SS Haupsturmführer Otto Skorzeny grabbed much of the laurels of this operation.
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Galeazzo Ciano: Diary 1937-1943
Galeazzo Ciano: Diary 1937-1943 records his growing disenchantment with the German alliance
and with Mussolini himself. The diary was smuggled to Switzerland in spite of Nazi attempts
to capture it.
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The Ciano Diaries 1939-1943: The Complete, Unabridged Diaries of Count Galeazzo Ciano, Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, 1936-1943 Paperback - December 1, 1945 by Hugh Gibson (Author), Count Galeazzo Ciano (Author)
An insider's look into wartime diplomacy in Europe, through Mussolini's foreign minister's confidential diaries that were secreted out of Italy after Ciano's execution in 1943.
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Hitler & Mussolini: The Secret Meetings Paperback - May 1, 2008 by Santi Corvaja (Author), Robert Miller (Translator)
Santi Corvaja was a retired journalist. He had access to many archives and actual participants in the fateful meetings between the two dictators. This is a work of objective history, unencumbered by any personal bias or political ideology. Mr. Corvaja died in 1999.
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Mussolini and his Generals: The Armed Forces and Fascist Foreign Policy, 1922-1940 (Cambridge Military Histories) by John Gooch (Author)
This is the first authoritative study of the Italian armed forces and the relationship between the military and foreign policies of Fascist Italy from Mussolini's rise to power in 1922 to the catastrophic defeat of 1940. Using extensive new research, John Gooch explores the nature and development of the three armed forces, their relationships with Mussolini and the impact of his policies and command, the development of operational and strategic thought, and the deployment and use of force in Libya, Abyssinia and Spain. He emphasizes Mussolini's long-term expansionist goals and explains how he responded to the structural pressures of the international system and the contingent pressures of events. This compelling account shows that while Mussolini bore ultimate responsibility for Italy's fateful entry into the Second World War, his generals and admirals bore a share of the blame for defeat through policies that all too often rested on irrationality and incompetence.
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Mussolini: The Last 600 Days of IL Duce Hardcover - June 30, 2004 by Ray Moseley (Author)
With a lucid style and a well-paced narrative, Moseley chronicles how, while Hitler and Nazi Germany became more radical, Mussolini and Fascist Italy degenerated into chaos. Moseley, former chief European correspondent for the Chicago Tribune and author of a highly regarded biography of Mussolini's foreign minister and son-in-law, Galeazzo Ciano (Mussolini's Shadow), has written a welcome synthesis of the final months of the fascist regime, beginning in 1943. In doing so, he uncovers the venality, intrigue, corruption, treachery and barbarism of the Fascist and Nazi regimes. The day after the Allies invaded Sicily and made preparations for an invasion of the mainland while their planes were bombing Rome, Turin and Milan, Mussolini was deposed by King Victor Emmanuel III in a (for the time being) bloodless coup d'état. Moseley shows how Ciano was instrumental in this development and the tragic fate that awaited him. Mussolini is portrayed (accurately) as deflated, depressed and having come late to the realization that he had "ruined Italy." Moseley devotes chapters to the fate of the Roman Jews; the partisan underground; and wartime atrocities, (most of which are attributed to the Germans, thereby giving the false impression that Italian Fascists committed no war crimes). Moseley's telling of the theft of Mussolini's corpse and the return of a fragment of his brain reads like the plot of a bad horror film.
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Mussolini's Shadow: The Double Life of Count Galeazzo Ciano Hardcover - February 9, 2000 by Ray Moseley (Author)
This is a biography of Count Galeazzo Ciano, based in part on the sensational diaries which he sought to trade for his life and which are among the most revealing sources on the relationship between the Axis powers in the early years of the World War II.
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My Rise And Fall Paperback - August 22, 1998 by Benito Mussolini (Author)
Here, for the first time in one volume, are two rare autobiographical works by Benito Mussolini (1883–1945), founder of Fascism and Italian dictator for twenty-one years. The first volume (published in English in 1928 as My Autobiography) describes Mussolini's youth, years as an agitator and journalist, experiences in World War I, the formation and revolutionary struggles of the Fascist Party, the March on Rome, and his early years in power. The second volume (published in English in 1948 as The Fall of Mussolini) was written during the brief period between his rescue by the Germans in September 1943 and his execution by Italian partisans in April 1945. Here the Duce recounts his last year in power and the coup d'état that deposed him. My Rise and Fall allows readers to view the dictator from two unique vantage points: Il Duce, eyes on the horizon, chin thrust forward, as he nears his political zenith; and Mussolini at his nadir.
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Mussolini's Intellectuals: Fascist Social and Political Thought by A. James Gregor (Author)
Fascism has traditionally been characterized as irrational and anti-intellectual, finding expression exclusively as a cluster of myths, emotions, instincts, and hatreds. This intellectual history of Italian Fascism--the product of four decades of work by one of the leading experts on the subject in the English-speaking world--provides an alternative account. A. James Gregor argues that Italian Fascism may have been a flawed system of belief, but it was neither more nor less irrational than other revolutionary ideologies of the twentieth century. Gregor makes this case by presenting for the first time a chronological account of the major intellectual figures of Italian Fascism, tracing how the movement's ideas evolved in response to social and political developments inside and outside of Italy.
Gregor follows Fascist thought from its beginnings in socialist ideology about the time of the First World War--when Mussolini himself was a leader of revolutionary socialism--through its evolution into a separate body of thought and to its destruction in the Second World War. Along the way, Gregor offers extended accounts of some of Italian Fascism's major thinkers, including Sergio Panunzio and Ugo Spirito, Alfredo Rocco (Mussolini's Minister of Justice), and Julius Evola, a bizarre and sinister figure who has inspired much contemporary "neofascism."
Gregor's account reveals the flaws and tensions that dogged Fascist thought from the beginning, but shows that if we want to come to grips with one of the most important political movements of the twentieth century, we nevertheless need to understand that Fascism had serious intellectual as well as visceral roots.
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The Mafia and the Allies: Sicily 1943 and the Return of the Mafia Paperback – September 1, 2007 by Ezio Costanzo (Author), George Lawrence (Translator)
Within weeks of the Pearl Harbor attack and the declaration of war on the United States by Germany and Italy, US war plans included the defense of the East Coast and the invasion of Sicily. Here, Ezio Costanzo examines the many elements of this secret scenario, which included long-suppressed information about cooperation between the Mafia and the US Army. The results came in the aftermath of the invasion, during the new military government that gave many Mafia leaders important administrative positions. Seen from an Italian standpoint, the success of US forces is examined in detail and many questions are finally answered.
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The Axis: Hitler's Allies Paperback - September 2, 2015 by Richard Osborne (Author)
Here are the "BAD GUYS" of World War II. Fifteen nations comprised the Axis Alliance & 14 of them declared war on the US. All of them declared war on the British Empire.
This book, written from the Axis perspective, records their often stormy and sometime treacherous relationships.
Here is a mountain of detailed information on the Axis Alliance found in no other book on this subject.
By war's end, six of these nations had changed sides and were fighting for the Allies and some of their leaders are hailed today as national heroes.
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Origins and Doctrine of Fascism: With Selections from Other Works New edition Edition by Giovanni Gentile (Author), A. James Gregor (Editor, Translator)
Giovanni Gentile (1875-1944) was the major theorist of Italian fascism, supplying its justification and rationale as a developmental form of dictatorship for status-deprived nations languishing on the margins of the Great Powers. Gentile's "actualism" (as his philosophy came to be called) absorbed many intellectual currents of the early twentieth century, including nationalism, syndicalism, and futurism. He called the individual to an idealistic ethic of obedience, work, self-sacrifi ce, and national community in a dynamic rebellion against the perceived impostures of imperialism. This volume makes available some of his more signifi cant writings produced shortly before and after the Fascist accession to power in Italy.
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Giovanni Gentile: Philosopher of Fascism by A. James Gregor (Author)
The recent rise in Europe of extreme right-wing political parties along with outbreaks of violent nationalist fervor in the former communist bloc has occasioned much speculation on a possible resurgence of fascism. At the polemical level, fascism has become a generic term applied to virtually any form of real or potential violence, while among Marxist and left-wing scholars discredited interpretations of fascism as a "product of late capitalism" are revived. Empty of cognitive significance, these formulas disregard the historical and philosophical roots of fascism as it arose in Italy and spread throughout Europe. In Giovanni Gentile: Philosopher of Fascism, A. James Gregor returns to those roots by examining the thought of Italian Fascism's major theorist.
In Gregor's reading of Gentile, fascism was-and remains-an anti-democratic reaction to what were seen to be the domination by advanced industrial democracies of less-developed or status-deprived communities and nations languishing on the margins of the "Great Powers." Sketching in the political background of late nineteenth-century Italy, industrially backward and only recently unified, Gregor shows how Gentile supplied fascism its justificatory rationale as a developmental dictatorship. Gentile's Actualism (as his philosophy came to be identified) absorbed many intellectual currents of the early twentieth century including nationalism, syndicalism, and futurism and united them in a dynamic rebellion against new perceived hegemonic impostures of imperialism. The individual was called to an idealistic ethic of obedience, work, self-sacrifice, and national community. As Gregor demonstrates, it was a paradigm of what we can expect in the twenty-first century's response, on the part of marginal nations, to the globalization of the industrialized democracies. Gregor cites post-Maoist China, nationalist Russia, Africa, and the Balkans at the development stage from which fascism could grow.
The first book-length analysis in English of Gentile's thought in over thirty years, this volume is valuable not only as a work of historical scholarship but as a timely warning. While Marxism-Leninism has passed into history, fascism may yet reemerge as an external threat to democratic nations.
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Faces Of Janus: Marxism And Fascism In The Twentieth Century Paperback - March 4, 2004 by James A. Gregor (Author)
Attempting to understand the catalogue of horrors that has characterised much of twentieth-century history, Western scholars generally distinguish between violent revolutions of the "right" and the "left". Fascist regimes are assigned to the evil right, Marxist-Leninist regimes to the benign left. But this distinction has left us without a coherent understanding of the revolutionary history of the twentieth century, contends A. James Gregor in this insightful book. He traces the evolution of Marxist theory from the 1920s through the 1990s and argues that the ideology of Marxism-Leninism devolved into fascism. Fascist regimes and Communist regimes - both anti-democratic ideocracies - are far more closely related than has been recognised. Employing wide-ranging primary source materials in Italian, German, Russian, and Chinese, the book opens with an examination of the first standard Marxist interpretation of Mussolini's fascism in the early 1920s and proceeds through the emergence of fascist phenomena in post-Communist Russia. A clearer understanding of the relation between fascism and communism provides a sharper lens through which to view twentieth-century history as well as the present and future politics of Russia, Communist China, and other non-democratic states, Gregor concludes.
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The Doctrine of Fascism Paperback - August 6, 2012 by Benito Mussolini (Author)
The Doctrine Of Fascism by Benito Mussolini [ZHINGOORA BOOKS].
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My Autobiography: With "The Political and Social Doctrine of Fascism" (Dover Books on History, Political and Social Science) Paperback - June 23, 2006 by Benito Mussolini (Author)
Urged by American Ambassador to Rome Richard Washburn Child to write his autobiography, Benito Mussolini hesitated only slightly before he dictated thoughts on his private and public life. This volume reprints the Italian dictator's extraordinary comments, capturing the spirit and personality of Il Duce as no other book does.
Included are Mussolini's views on Italian politics, descriptions of his years as an agitator, journalist, and soldier, the formation of the Fascist Party, the "March on Rome," and his early years in power. The text also contains some of his most famous speeches in the Italian Parliament, his vision of Italy's return to glory, and his definitive statement on the doctrine of Fascism and its political justification.
Essential reading for students of history and political science, this frank, and frequently arrogant, revelation of the Italian leader's life produced mixed reactions when first published in 1928. "Like him or not," wrote the reviewer for the Saturday Review of Literature, "here he is, Mussolini the man, the patriot, the leader."
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Mussolini: The Rise and Fall of Il Duce Paperback - July 22, 2008 by Christopher Hibbert (Author)
With his signature insight and compelling style, Christopher Hibbert explains the extraordinary complexities and contradictions that characterized Benito Mussolini. Mussolini was born on a Sunday afternoon in 1883 in a village in central Italy. On a Saturday afternoon in 1945 he was shot by Communist partisans on the shores of Lake Como. In the sixty-two years in between those two fateful afternoons Mussolini lived one of the most dramatic lives in modern history. Hibbert traces Mussolini's unstoppable rise to power and details the nuances of his facist ideology. This book examines Mussolini's legacy and reveals why he continues to be both revered and reviled by the Italian people.
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Garibaldi: Hero of Italian Unification Paperback - July 22, 2008 by Christopher Hibbert (Author), Ross King (Foreword)
Giuseppe Garibaldi was praised for his military genius, his courage, and his charisma. Known as the "Hero of Two Worlds," Garibaldi's military prowess extended to the Americas, where he played a major role in the Brazilian struggle for independence. During his fight for Italian unification Garibaldi personally led an army of local untrained rebels to victory in Palermo, Naples, and Sicily. His forces suffered from lack of equipment, food, and money, and yet Garabaldi commanded their fierce loyalty. Christopher Hibbert reveals how this iconic figure earned the adulation of not only his fellow Italians, but people across the globe.
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Fascism, Architecture, and the Claiming of Modern Milan, 1922-1943 (Toronto Italian Studies) Hardcover – February 7, 2014 by Lucy M. Maulsby (Author)
Fascism, Architecture, and the Claiming of Modern Milan, 1922–1943 chronicles the dramatic architectural and urban transformation of Milan during the nearly twenty years of fascist rule. The commercial and financial centre of Italy and the birthplace of fascism, Milan played a central role in constructing fascism’s national image and identity as it advanced from a revolutionary movement to an established state power.
Using a wide range of archival sources, Lucy M. Maulsby analyses the public buildings, from the relatively modest party headquarters to the grandiose Palace of Justice and the Palazzo del Popolo d’Italia, through which Mussolini intended to enhance the city’s image and solidify fascism’s presence in Milan. Maulsby establishes the extent to which Milan’s economic structure, social composition, and cultural orientation affected Il Duce’s plans for the city, demonstrating the influences on urban development that were beyond the control of the fascist regime. By placing Milan’s urban change in its historic context, this book expands our understanding of the relationship between fascism and the modern city.
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The Third Rome, 1922-43: The Making of the Fascist Capital by Aristotle Kallis (Author)
Rome underwent a spectacular transformation under Fascist rule; a transformation that was visual and topographical but also deeply symbolic. The 'third Rome' that Mussolini envisioned and sought to realise in the 1920s and 1930s was partly a new city, expanding in all directions from the historic centre, and partly a new vision for an ideal city that emerged from within a cityscape forged across millennia of history. This Rome was intended to be both the capital of a regenerated Italy and the sanctuary of a new international fascist political religion. Aristotle Kallis traces the plethora of visions and projects that sought to reimagine, reinvent, and reshape the city as a 'fascist capital' over the course of twenty short years. Extensive demolitions, reconfigurations of sites and monuments, as well as ambitious new constructions designed by an array of architects in wildly different styles, chronicle a fascinating story of conquering drive, ruthless appropriation, and interrupted ambition.
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Mussolini's Rome: Rebuilding the Eternal City (Italian and Italian American Studies) Paperback – March 6, 2007 by Borden Painter (Author)
After coming to power in 1922, Mussolini spent two decades rebuilding Rome as the foremost site and symbol of the new fascist order. Through an ambitious program of demolition and construction, he sought to make Rome a capital that both embraced modernity while preserving and glorifying the city's ancient past. This intriguing book reveals Mussolini's tremendous and lasting impact on the city to which millions flock each year.
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