Fascists After Fascism

Fascists after Fascism addresses a fundamental question surrounding democratic transitions: what fate awaits ministers of defunct dictatorships if they escape violent retribution and weather legal sanctions? In Italy, violent retribution was followed by trials in a special court in 1945 and 1946. However, by 1948 amnesties and appellate court decisions overturned most of those sentences and Mussolini’s henchmen walked free.

This book examines the transformation of former Fascist government ministers from wanted criminals in the 1940s to respected private citizens during the 1950s and 1960s using their largely unexplored post–Second World War writings, correspondence, and court documents. Historian Rhiannon Evangelista adopts a collective-biographical approach, focusing on six of the most famous Fascist officials to survive the regime: Giuseppe Bottai, Dino Grandi, Luigi Federzoni, Dino Alfieri, Giacomo Acerbo, and Alberto de’ Stefani. All six of these men remained influential in Republican Italy, playing major roles in shaping the popular memory of the Fascist regime and participating in postwar conservative politics.

By tracing how they rebuilt power through social networks, shared memories, and lingering sympathies, Fascists After Fascism offers a valuable reconstruction of transitional justice in postwar Italy.