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After a twelfth chapter entitled Dictating fulltime (pp. 339-366, in which Bosworth heavily
focuses on Mussolini, cf. his own biography),
the in our opinion best chapter in the book is the
thirteenth, entitled Becoming imperialists (pp.
367-395). Here the author more and more shows
himself as the historian of fascist foreign and
imperial policy. He does not look away from
fascist cruelties in Northern Africa and Ethiopia,
nor does he hesitate to state that it was mainly
bourgeois society that put an idealist
imperialism to the fore, an aggressive and highly
rhetorical discourse rooted in frustration and
neglect of basic humanity. On the other hand, a
continuity with liberal Italy and its imperialist
aspirations is underlined. In this way, the reader
gets a clear idea of the degeneration of Fascism
as well as of Italian bourgeois society in the
1930s.
The following chapters analyze the further
downfall of the fascist regime, as it slided into
one international conflict after another. It seems
that for Bosworth Fascism was a machine of
propaganda: in order to keep the system going,
fuel was needed, and this was found in more and
more swollen rhetoric, leading to disastrous
exploits, mostly in the form of (the threat of)
foreign aggression. The last chapters, on the
fascist intervention in World War II and the
eventual downfall of the duce (and his
temporary return as puppet leader of the
northern part of Italy) describe a story that is
rather well-known: the story of an Italy totally
unprepaired for war, reluctant to adopt racist
policies (although the latter seemes to be no
obstacle in the Republic of Sal),
Bosworth does not at all hesitate to touch upon
still open wounds such as fascist racist policy,
and tries to explain these as belonging to a
specific context, the context of a country that,
having had the numbing experience of total
chaos (WWI), was governed by a regime that in
a way tried to perpetuate this chaos from
which it was born.
Mussolinis Italy is a very valuable, we dare say
necessary, observation of fascist Italy, of a
country and a people that up until today bear the
consequences of their black past (cf.
Bosworths 18th chapter, p. 531-560). R.J.B.
Bosworth has produced a lively, illustrated,
motivated study. The author offers, through a
variety of detail and small stories which makes
him in this aspect tributary to De Felice the
irony is that Bosworth pins De Felice down as
revisionist- a very wide overlook on a not
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crecimiento con las dinmicas de autoorganizacin. La Europa de los fuertes sera una
de esas respuestas, donde Francia y Alemania
capitanearan un continente que intentara hacer
sombra, superar, o al menos contrapesar, a la
gigante maquinaria norteamericana. Al eje
franco-alemn, incontestable en este modelo,
quedaran sometidos Gran Bretaa, los pases
medianos de la Unin (como Espaa, Italia,
Portugal), y el antiguo bloque del Este. Sera una
Europa fuerte frente a la ingerencia
norteamericana pero muy desigual, dado el
predominio de Francia y Alemania sobre el resto
de pases. Ninguno de estos secundones
podra matizar, y mitigar, las decisiones tomadas
por Berln y Pars.
La segunda respuesta, planteada en el viejo
continente para enfrentarse al reto de la Ley del
Nmero, es la Europa de los medianos. Ante
al eje franco-alemn se constituira un bloque
formado por los pases medianos y pequeos
capitaneados por Gran Bretaa. Tendramos as
una Europa ms equilibrada que impedira
arbitrariedades de los dos gigantes, y sin
embargo, el excesivo peso britnico abrira las
puertas del continente a la influencia /
ingerencia norteamericana.
Entre estos dos modelos camina la actual
Europa. El proyecto de Constitucin europea,
naufragado en la propia Francia y actualmente
en coma, ha intentado fundirlos en un hbrido
de impredecibles consecuencias, ambigua
definicin y dudosa eficacia. Aunque Europa no
pueda sobrevivir sin la mirada al Atlntico,
tampoco debe favorecer la penetracin de un
imperio norteamericano que ya viene caminando
a sus anchas por el viejo continente desde el
Plan Marshall. Pero si mantener ese inestable
equilibrio es difcil, no lo es menos el pretender
que Francia y Alemania pierdan influencia a
favor de las medianas y pequeas potencias. Lo
ideal es una Europa ms equilibrada en su
interior y ms independiente de los Estados
Unidos.
En pleno proceso de ampliacin, los equilibrios
estables son casi imposibles, y las relaciones con
Estados Unidos giran en torno a una balanza
inestable, incierta y hasta azarosa formada por
dos polos: aqul donde se plantea la definicin
de una alternativa (econmica, poltica, cultural,
ideolgica, militar) a Norteamrica, y aqul otro
polo que pasa por el planteamiento de una
simple competencia en todos estos aspectos. A
este captulo de las relaciones exteriores de
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Sobibor.
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reunir
los
trabajos
de
estadounidenses provenientes
variadas disciplinas.
investigadores
de las ms
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