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Blood and Power

The Rise and Fall of Italian Fascism

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Blood and Power

By: John Foot
Narrated by: Daniel Philpott
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Bloomsbury presents Blood and Power by John Foot, read by Daniel Philpott.

'Clear, cool, plainly written and devastating’ Lucy Hughes-Hallett, Times Literary Supplement

A major history of the rise and fall of Italian fascism: a dark tale of violence, ideals and a country at war.

In the aftermath of the First World War, the seeds of fascism were sown in Italy. While the country reeled in shock, a new movement emerged from the chaos: one that preached hatred for politicians and love for the fatherland; one that promised to build a ‘New Roman Empire’, and make Italy a great power once again.

Wearing black shirts and wielding guns, knives and truncheons, the proponents of fascism embraced a climate of violence and rampant masculinity. Led by Benito Mussolini, they would systematically destroy the organisations of the left, murdering and torturing anyone who got in their way.

In Blood and Power, historian John Foot draws on decades of research to chart the turbulent years between 1915 and 1945, and beyond. Drawing widely from accounts of people across the political spectrum – fascists, anti-fascists, communists, anarchists, victims, perpetrators and bystanders – he tells the story of fascism and its legacy, which still, disturbingly, reverberates to this day.(P)2022 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Europe Italy Military Politics & Government War Socialism
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Critic reviews

A book swarming with people, each one of whose stories adds another touch to the big picture … This is history as viewed, not by those who shaped it, but by those who endured it … Clear, cool, plainly written and devastating. (Lucy Hughes-Hallett)
Excellent ... Highly readable ... A fascinating glimpse into the actual experience of living under fascist terror... The first book I have read which brings the reader to the heart of the period. (William Wall)
John Foot has written some fine books on Italy … Blood and Power: the Rise and Fall of Italian Fascism is his finest to date ... He has given us a superb historical work, accessible and weighty, of how fascism once gripped a country, and has never fully let go. Blood and Power is essential reading of a political past that presages warning signs for all our political futures. (N. J. McGarrigle)
Foot has provided us with new villains and heroes ... [and] tells the interested reader stories that they will have probably never heard before (David Aaronovitch)
This book is not a history of Italy, nor a Mussolini biography, but a study of his political movement — a fragmented word gallery of personalities and events (Max Hastings)
Meticulous ... Fascinating ... Where Foot’s book is invaluable is in the light it sheds on dozens of unremembered heroes – who often, like [Giuseppe] Di Vagno, gave their lives attempting to save Italy from dictatorship – and in providing rounded pictures of men and women whose adventures we know about only partially. (Caroline Moorhead)
Foot's fascinating book offers a new and disturbing reading of the Fascist era and its origins ... He presents a compelling kaleidoscope of individual stories that break through fascism's historic silences (Vanda Wilcox)
Magnificent ... A tremendous work: vivid, visceral, and highly relevant to our own time ... Foot is a terrific writer and brings to life some of the key characters and events of the period ... Instead of dense political theory or detailed chronology, Foot gives us a history “through episodes, fragments, massacres and trials, moments of violence and escape, defeats and victories, silences and noise, rhetoric and reality”. His approach succeeds brilliantly (David Winner)
A deeply detailed historical excavation but written in part as warning ... John Foot is an academic who writes like a journalist (this is a compliment) (Simon Kuper)
Lively, readable and provocative …. John Foot uses anecdotes and episodes, vignettes and thumbnail portraits to tell the story of Fascism … Foot’s plausible thesis is that it was violence that brought Fascism to power and underpinned the regime … Overall, Foot’s quirky book is a joy (David Laven)
All stars
Most relevant
interesting listen especially now (far right just won the Italian election). An great, in depth look at the rise of Fascism and how it all came apart for Mussolini.

interesting in the current context

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The story of fascism has been too often mellowed down in the name of "reconciliation". Every Italian should read this book.

brilliant

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This book provides a close-to-comprehensive (more on this later) look at how fascism rose to power in Italy. It ranges from the early 1900s (with some references to the late 1800s, all the way up to present day, with the core of the book focusing from around 1914 to about 1947/the late 40s. It describes in vivid detail the atrocities of acts committed by truly vile individuals, to a shocking degree. The part covering Mussolini's death and the following days is particularly graphic. It debunks many myths and excuses passed around about the supposed light touch of fascism in the period, and details the rapid and total decimation of opposition to Mussolini's rise to power in the early days of his rule and the preceding period.

Direct quotes, eye-witness accounts, related literature, references to photographs and footage and even memories of the author's own ancestors form an objective view of the period.

My only criticisms are as follows:

1) In the first part of the book, we are told on numerous occasions how the liberal apparatus, state, government etc. of Italy at the time was either nearly or totally passive in the face of clear aggression from fascist forces, right up until an attempt to declare martial law. Police forces let people get away with literal murder, looked on while brutal beatings took place (inside places as public as Milan's galleria). The author never once attempts to explains exactly why the state and authorities were so non-interventionist. Why did a whole series of liberal prime ministers ignore the ransacking if newspaper offices, beatings in public places, murders, etc.? It's never explained. It's not like these officials were fascist themselves, so why?

2) While overall it's told quite well, in many places the writing isn't smooth, is quite clunky, with multiple repetitions and poorly structured phrases. In some places it reads very professionally, while in others it appears a bit amateur.

3) The narrator speaks very clearly and is a good fit, but frequently commits jarring mistakes with intonation. He'll read the middle of a sentence like it's the end, and sometimes use long pauses. He often puts intonation and emphasis in entirely the wrong place.

Despite this, overall I highly recommend this book.

Fantastic coverage of the fascist period of Italy

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Excelent book on what life of an average peasant was like in Italy under the rule of Mousolini. We never tend to think about what it is actually like for the people who lived under such regime might have been like but this book puts it in perspective. Also excelent narrative. Wouls highly recomend this book

Excelent insight into what life was like in Fascist Italy

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An account of how fascism took and maintained power. Resonates with some aspects of the present day.

Fascinating history of Italy and Fascism

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