On the occasion of the publication of
Mauro Canali, The Matteotti Murder and Mussolini, The Anatomy of a Fascist Crime
(2024, Palgrave Macmillan)
The author in conversation with
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, NYU
Stanislao Pugliese, Hofstra University
In ENGLISH
This panel will discuss the Fascist murder of Socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti, on the occasion of the publication in English of historian Mauro Canali’s award-winning study about the crime, its coverup, and the circumstances that led to the declaration of the first Fascist dictatorship.
About the book
This much-awarded work by one of Italy’s most esteemed historians of fascism, Mauro Canali, is now available in English translation. Based on a wealth of previously unavailable judicial and archival material, it sheds light on how fascism exercised power through violence and corruption from the very beginning. The book reveals the motives that led Mussolini to order the kidnapping and murder of Socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti in 1924, a turning point in Mussolini’s grasp of total power in Italy. Canali further explores the corrupt dealings between the Mussolini family and the American Sinclair Oil Company that Matteotti had intended to denounce in the Italian parliament the day after his death.
Image: Giacomo Matteotti’s funeral (Archivio Rcs/A. Bruni)
The Matteotti murder, 1924-2014