Blood and Power

The Rise and Fall of Italian Fascism

By: John Foot

Narrated by: Daniel Philpott

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

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)

Good Answers but Generates More Questions

I picked this up wanting to know more about the rise of fascism in Italy. The early disclaimers warned me I might not be getting bits in this book I'd be interested in, and be warned it pointedly avoids details of the 2nd Italo-Ethiopian War and the 2nd World War. With that said, it does go in on how the fluid boil of Italian politics pre-and post WW1 set the stage for Italian Fascism. The fascinating part is to see how quickly and easily many socialist radicals (including Mussolini himself) rapidly changed sides and became even ardent fascists. The two 'red years' followed by the two 'black years' is quite a ride indeed with many informative stories. Foot is blunt about the role violence and murder played in the rise of the fascists and their seizure of power in 1921. The fact they were aided by sympathetic actors within the Italian state (including the 'soldier king',Victor Emmanuel) helps explain things, but the rapidity of a country that elected socialists to power only to see fascists seize it in the streets a scant 2 years later is still astonishing. The fact that it happened because basically 20% of the electorate were utterly unwilling to accept the results of that election and openly engaged in violence and terrorism to overturn them is chilling indeed. Chilling still more so as it succeeded with the inaction of those who might have stopped it. Dispelled too are the myths of 'the good Italians' in the war, and the fact that Mussolini on!y enacted his racial laws under duress.
The frustrating part is that while we get a lot of details on theater bombings, failed assassins who tried for Il Duce, and the March on Rome, I find other key questions and issues unexplored. Like why did Mussolini lead it (from afar of course) and not Italo Balbo? Or Gabriele D'Annunzio? Both get time and space in the book but I'm not at all clear on why Mussolini became the leader of the movement (maybe because he had the newspaper?). Similarly, it seems an all too quick slide from the fascist racial laws in 1938 to suddenly its 1943 and the Fascist Grand Council is voting Mussolini out of power. 'Blood and Power's pace is a bit uneven, as is sometimes the scope.
Copious detail is given to Mussolini's execution, and to the aftermath. But that begins to make sense as Foot points out just how little reckoning Italy did with its fascist past for so long. As in many other places, it was easier to bury the past and rewrite (or entirely omit) history than undergo the painful cleansing and see justice done.
I did enjoy the book and it answered many questions, but I'm looking for other materials to fill in the gaps.

Entertaining but superficial

I have no objection to history written for popular consumption, but this is really watered down. Lots of anecdotes, virtually no analysis. I am surprised that a reputable publisher put it out.