The Italian Resistance: Fascists, Guerrillas and the Allies [Hardcover]

It's an enduring myth of the Second World War that only the Allies liberated occupied Europe. Tom Behan demolishes that idea in this fascinating book. In doing so, he paints a picture of a powerful resistance movement, one which heroically played its part in breaking the back of Benito Mussolini's fascist state and resisting German occupying forces.

The book is in two main parts. The first takes you through a chronological history of the period between Mussolini's rise to power in 1922 and the liberation of the country in 1945. Behan explains how, as the old regime collapsed, many people came to the conclusion that they had to resist the Nazi invasion and fascist repression.

According to the Allied commander in chief partisan activities in the north pinned down six out of the 25 German divisions based in northern Italy. The partisans liberated Naples, Florence, Genoa and Milan amongst other cities. In one form or another up to 700,000 Italians were involved in the resistance.

The resistance trod a thin line between fighting fascism and maintaining an uneasy working relationship with the Allies. The Allies were afraid that there would be a revolution in Italy and worked against it, even suspending offensive action in the winter of 1944/45 and leaving the partisans to fight the Germans and Italian Fascists alone.

The second part looks in greater detail at the political forces that shaped the resistance movement. Behan makes a critical examination of the role of the Italian Communist Party, its obedient following of every twist and turn of Stalin's foreign policy, its failure to look beyond parliamentary democracy and it's adoption of nationalist politics while Behan celebrates the direct democracy of the resistance movement.

Behan also deals with the recent resurgence of Fascism in Italy and how historical revisionism has aided that process. I feel that in this section, Behan could have made more of the continuities between Liberal, Fascist and Republican Italy.

This is a really good book which is well written and has a sharp analysis woven into it's narrative and brings a little known episode of World War II to an English speking audience.

The story of the Italian Resistance is set not only against the history of Italy after the Fascists took over, but also within the perspective of what happened after liberation. A truly excellent history told with knowledge, understanding and sympathy. I've been waiting for a book like this for years! A truly human story which made me feel that all is not lost in the right-wing morass of today's Europe. It brought back to mind the euphoria I felt at the end of the Second World War, the hope of a better world soon to be dashed by Churchill's speech at Fulton.