1st Edition
Racism and Antisemitism in Fascist Italy The Politics, Ideology, and Imagery of ‘La Difesa della razza’
Introduction Part 1: Politics 1. The regime's extremist 2. In the name of the 'Race Manifesto' Part 2: Ideology 3. Contra Judaeos: antisemitism and conspiracy theory 4. Nature or Nurture? La Difesa della razza and eugenics 5. Racial theory, black Africans, and colonialism: the hegemony of Lidio Cipriani Part 3: Aesthetics 6. The arts and race: painting, music, and architecture 7. The readers' column and the racialization of Leopardi 8. The art of hatred Conclusion: Afterlives
Biography
Francesco Cassata is a Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Genoa. He has published extensively on the history of eugenics, on Cold War science and the history of the ‘Lysenko controversy’ in Italy, and on the history of molecular biology in Italy and Europe.
"Initially appearing in Italian in 2008, this revised and updated book - confirmed by the 70-plus new sources included in the bibliography - is now available in English. The bimonthly magazine La Difesa della razza (1938–43) was the most iconic of Fascist publications dedicated to race in Italy. Its editor, Telesio Interlandi, was also a driving force behind the newspaper Il Tevere and the illustrated weekly Quadrivio. Cassata (Univ. of Genoa, Italy) presents a readable and well-researched study of the views of both Interlandi and the circle of journalists and illustrators surrounding him in the offices of the three publications. His exploration of the group’s racial views is organized into chapters on ideology, anti-Semitism, eugenics, racial legislation, African peoples/colonialism, the arts, and the publications’ imagery. Cassata convincingly argues that although La Difesa appeared at roughly the same time as the promulgation of the anti-Semitic “Race Manifesto,” published in July 1938, Interlandi’s discriminatory and increasingly proto-genocidal views were long-standing and his editorship not opportunistic. The author’s unpacking of Interlandi’s biologically based racial theory vis-à-vis the other racist ideological currents (nationalist and esoteric) is fascinating, all three strands agreeing on marginalizing and attacking both Jews and their Aryan sympathizers. - R. T. Ingoglia, St. Thomas Aquinas College, CHOICE LIbrary Magazine Recommended Title
