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ica.” American History Illustrated 15, no. 10
(1981): 42–48.MUSSOLINI, BENITO
Mussolini, Benito
(July 29, 1883–April 28, 1945)
Italian Dictator
I
l duce swaggered
onto the world’s po-
litical stage like a lat-
ter-day Julius Caesar, at-
tempting to re-create the
Roman Empire in his
own image. Bombastic
and lacking a scintilla of
military sense, his comic-
opera regime collapsed
after only three years of
warfare.
Benito Amilcare An-
drea Mussolini was born
in Dovis, Italy, on July 29,
1883, the son of a black-
smith and a school-
teacher. He inherited from
his father an abiding in-
terest in the Socialist
Party, along with a taste
for political extremism.
As a young man, Mus-
solini worked briefly as a
schoolteacher, then fled
to Switzerland to avoid compulsory military
service. Afterward, he worked as a manual la-
borer, a left-wing agitator, and, after 1912, an
editor of the socialist newspaper Avanti.
However, Mussolini grew disillusioned with
the socialists and severed ties over Italian in-
tervention in World War I. He strongly advo-
cated Italy to take a more active role in
events and joined the army, fighting several
years as a rifleman. Mus-
solini was wounded in
1917 and returned to
civilian life. Politically,
however, he began mul-
ling the creation of a new
right-wing ideology that
would dominate his life
and country for the next
three decades.
Mussolini’s concept of
fascism was his own
unique blend of national-
ism, imperialism, and
corporatism—that is, a
close government al-
liance with large business
interests. The resulting
corporate state he envi-
sioned was to be orga-
nized and administered
by assigned groups rather
than by individuals, as in
a democracy. Thus, the
government would deal
with blocs of workers and industrialists
together, or small farmers and large landown-
ers, rather than with individuals along class
lines. This new state structure was intended
to carry Italy into the future while recapturing
the past glory of ancient Rome. To this end,
Mussolini adopted the Roman symbol of au-
thority—the fascia(an ax surrounded by a
bundle of rods) as the party logo. In 1919, heBenito Mussolini
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