Alexander De Grand and Understanding Italy Beyond Fascism

Alexander De Grand is noted for his work on Italian Fascism.  His interests, however, have extended well beyond Benito Mussolini’s movement and regime to such studies as The Italian Left in the Twentieth Century and, more recently, his biography of Giovanni Giolitti, The Hunchback’s Tailor.  An examination of De Grand’s oeuvre reveals many important observations and judgments on, for example, the Italian bourgeoisie, women, the Resistance to Fascism, and the role of the Catholic Church in Italian society.  My contribution shall examine such issues in what are, perhaps, some of the less obvious places that De Grand’s work has taken us.