Overview
- Presents a fascinating challenge to all existing theories of Mussolini and his foreign policy
Provides new insights into Mussolini's thinking
Employs new research on the subject
Part of the book series: The Making of the Twentieth Century (MATWCE)
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About this book
Robert Mallett makes use of much new archival evidence in order to answer this riddle of interwar history. Mallett argues that Mussolini had harboured imperial designs in the Mediterranean and Red Sea from as early as 1919, but that not until 1933, with the rise of Hitler, was it possible for Fascist Italy to pursue a programme of territorial expansion. Previously unpublished material also casts new light on the Nazi-Fascist relationship, revealing it to be at times paranoid, acrimonious and duplicitous on both sides.
Although the book focuses on Italian policy, it provides an important reassessment of the Ethiopian Crisis, the Spanish Civil War, the Austro-German Anschluss, Munich and the run up to the Second World War. Mallett shows that it is erroneous to place excessive emphasis on the role of Adolf Hitler in subverting the interwar international order, and demonstrates that Mussolini was heavily implicated in the global conflict that erupted in September 1939.
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Table of contents (12 chapters)
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Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Mussolini and the Origins of the Second World War, 1933-1940
Authors: Robert Mallett
Series Title: The Making of the Twentieth Century
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4039-3774-2
Publisher: Red Globe Press London
eBook Packages: Palgrave History Collection, History (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2003
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: IX, 266
Additional Information: Previously published under the imprint Palgrave
Topics: European History