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On the morning of 30 October 1922, Mussolini arrived in Rome to accept the premiership of a constitutional, conservative government. Within five years, however, his regime would morph into a dictatorship that neither his fascist supporters nor the conservative old order could have predicted, and Mussolini himself would be transformed from figurehead to despot.
A multiplicity of personalities and wider impersonal forces, including the social upheaval caused by the previous world war, combined to make possible the crisis of 1922 and the Fascist ′March on Rome′. But in fact, Donald Sassoon argues, things could have gone very differently and the core focus of this illuminating study is not so much what happened, but how. How did Mussolini seize power so effectively that he maintained it for the next twenty years, until he dragged his country, disastrously, into World War II? Social fragmentation, unionization, inflation and nationalism all played a part in weakening the old political system, while Mussolini seemed to provide answers in a troubling new era. In the event, Il Duce′s ruthless political ambition and cruel authoritarianism would surprise his supporters and opponents alike...
The illustrious Making History Series, edited by Lisa Jardine and Amanda Foreman, explores an eclectic mix of history′s tipping points. Here, the most eminent of guest writers have been invited to present a subject closest to their heart, presenting the grand theatre of the past in a collection of inventive and provocative essays. The series awakens fresh interest in subjects long before us - the decline of Aztec Empire, Waterloo, Nuremberg - as well as uncovering the seemingly quiet moments of chance which turned subsequent events on their head.
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The Culture Of The Europeans
This compelling, wide-ranging and hugely ambitious book offers, for the first time ever, an integrated history of the culture produced and consumed by Europeans since 1800, and follows its transformation from an elite activity to a mass market - from lending libraries to...
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Mona Lisa: The History of the World's Most Famous Painting
A narrative history of how Leonardo da Vinci′s painting of the Mona Lisa came to be the most famous in the world - and one of the most powerful cultural icons of our time. What has made the Mona Lisa the most famous picture in the world? Why is it that, of all the 6,000 paintings...
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American Sniper
By Chris Kyle, Scott McEwen, Jim DeFelice
He is the deadliest American sniper ever, called “the devil” by the enemies he hunted and “the legend” by his Navy SEAL brothers . . . From 1999 to 2009, U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle recorded the most career sniper kills in United States military history. The Pentagon has officially confirmed more...
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Nazi Officer's Wife, The
By Edith H. Beer
Edith Hahn was an outspoken young woman in Vienna when the Gestapo forced her into a ghetto and then into a labor camp. When she returned home months later, she knew she would become a hunted woman and went underground. With the help of a Christian friend, she emerged in Munich as Grete Denner....
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