This new study re-examines the controversial debate on Fascist Italy's road to international conflict that has raged for six decades. The author's privileged access to until now unseen archival materials allows him to assess the ideological, geopolitical, domestic and strategic considerations that shaped Mussolini's alliance with Hitler, and his subsequent decision to wage war against Great Britain and France in June 1940.

Product Description: The essays that comprise this study of 20th-century fascism shift the focus away from the German and Italian models and towards the influence of fascist ideology within other countries. (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Robert Mallett argues that the Duce's aggressive war against the Mediterranean powers, Britain and France, was to secure access to the world's oceans. Mussolini actively pursued the Italo-German alliance to gain a Fascist empire stretching from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean...read more