Mussolini Studies
De Felice is best known for a massive seven volume biography of Benito Mussolini that was almost finished at the time of his death. De Felice was the founder and editor of the influential journal Storia Contemporanea. De Felice also wrote a well-regarded history of Jewish life under the Fascist government and articles on Italian Jacobinism.
De Felice's leading interest was in fascism. In his view, there were two types of fascism, "fascism as a movement" and "fascism as a regime". De Felice saw the fascism, especially in the "movement" stage, as a revolutionary middle-class ideology that had deep roots in the Enlightenment. Moreover, De Felice insisted that fascism was not caused by fear of a proletarian revolution on the part of the lower middle classes - as the leftist historiography maintained - but was rather an assertive movement originated by an emerging middle class in search for its proper role.
On the opposite, fascism as a regime was seen by De Felice as nothing more than Mussolini's policy - which tended to make of fascist ideology just the superstructure of Mussolini's dictatorship and personal power. De Felice felt that fascism should be seen as valid political ideology, not just something to be demonized and dismissed in simplistic terms. He argued that studies on Fascism should get out from the political debate and become a historiographical issue based on scientific assertions.
Furthermore, De Felice insisted that there was no connection or valid comparisons to be drawn between Italian Fascism and German National Socialism, which De Felice saw as being a completely different political ideology. Critics on the left attacked De Felice for being too sympathetic to Italian Fascism. Giuliano Procacci, Paolo Alatri, Nicola Tranfaglia and others even accused De Felice of writing an apologia of Fascism.
Read more about this topic: Renzo De Felice
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