Chapter 87: Roma

335     contains the remains . . . died during World War I “The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier,” Vittoriano and Palazzo Venezia, VIVE Institute, accessed March 12, 2025, vive.cultura.gov.it/en/altar-fatherland/not-miss/tomb-unknown-soldier.

335     in an ancient Roman robe, goatskin . . . statuette known as a winged victory  “The Goddess Rome by Angelo Zanelli,” Vittoriano and Palazzo Venezia, accessed March 12, 2025, vive.cultura.gov.it/en/altar-fatherland/not-miss/goddess-rome-angelo-zanelli.

335     an ancient Roman deity . . . Rome and the Roman state “Roma,” Encyclopedia Mythica, accessed March 12, 2025,pantheon.org/articles/r/roma.html; and “The Cult of the Goddess Roma in Miletus. About 130 BC,” in Rome and the Greek East to the Death of Augustus, ed. and trans. Robert K. Sherk (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 42. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/9197359.

335 the equestrian statue of Victor Emmanuel II  “Vittoriano,” Vittoriano and Palazzo Venezia, accessed March 12, 2025, vive.cultura.gov.it/en/vittoriano.

335 the first king of unified Italy . . . 1861 to 1878  “Victor Emmanuel II and the Risorgimento Process,” Vittoriano and Palazzo Venezia, accessed March 12, 2025, vive.cultura.gov.it/en/vittoriano/history/victor-emmanuel-ii-and-risorgimento-process.

335 the Altar of the Fatherland  “Many, indeed a huge number, consider the entire complex of the Vittoriano as the Altar of the Fatherland. Alone, this habit underlines its importance." “Altar of the Fatherland,” Vittoriano and Palazzo Venezia, accessed March 12, 2025, vive.cultura.gov.it/en/altar-of-the-fatherland.

335 accompanied by . . . and Constitutional Court  “78th Liberation Day,” Ministry of Defence, Italian Government, April 25, 2023, www.difesa.it/eng/primo-piano/78th-liberation-day/32171.html.

335 the most votes in Italy’s general election International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) Election Guide, “Italian Chamber of Deputies,” September 25, 2022, last updated October 31, 2023, accessed September 25, 2025, www.electionguide.org/elections/id/3516/; and Antonio Voce and Seán Clarke, “Italian Election 2022: Live Official Results,” The Guardian, September 26, 2022, www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2022/sep/25/italian-election-2022-live-official-results.

335–336 the first European country hit hard . . . the first to shut down Iris Bosa et al., “Response to COVID-19: Was Italy (Un)prepared?” Health Economics, Policy, and Law 17, no. 1 (March 2021), pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7985656/.

336 opposing COVID-19 closures, restrictions . . .  See Giorgia Meloni, Twitter, April 3, 2021, 8:32 a.m., x.com/GiorgiaMeloni/status/1378324419186204673, archived at archive.today, February 9, 2026 capture, archive.ph/wip/vvjSv; Meloni, Twitter, April 16, 2021, 2:06 p.m.,x.com/GiorgiaMeloni/status/1383119533641248768, archived at archive.today, February 9, 2026 capture, archive.ph/wip/DQBX3;
and Meloni, Twitter, February 15, 2022, 5:56 a.m.,x.com/GiorgiaMeloni/status/1493539605999767563, archived at archive.today, February 9, 2026 capture, archive.ph/wip/H1f0P.

336 rolled these measures back  Hannah Roberts, “Brothers of Italy Prepare to Roll Back COVID Rules,” Politico, September 30, 2022, www.politico.eu/article/brothers-of-italy-giorgia-meloni-roll-back-covid-rule-vaccine/.

336 ran on reducing crime—and associating crime with immigration The party’s 2022 platform stated, “Between old and new forms of crime, Italy is increasingly unsafe. Illegal immigration threatens the security and quality of life of its citizens. Our cities are degraded and unlivable. Suburbs and historic centers are the scene of squats, violence, and drug dealing.” The Program Ready to Revive Italy, Political Elections 25 September 2022, Brothers of Italy, cdn.pagellapolitica.it/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Programm_FratelliItalia.pdf, via Google Translate, 31. For their pledges aimed at reducing crime, including a promise to “improve the staffing, equipment, and legal protection of law enforcement and police forces,” see The Program Ready to Revive Italy, cdn.pagellapolitica.it/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Programm_FratelliItalia.pdf, 31–32.

336 “Delinquents are the soldiers” Emphasis by Camus. Renaud Camus, You Will Not Replace Us! (Plieux, France: Renaud Camus, 2018), 52. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/1091051149.

336 “There is no identifiable gap between . . .” Camus, You Will Not Replace Us!, 53. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/1091051149.

336     reported a “crime wave” . . . particularly in the United States Researchers at the Thurgood Marshall Institute “examine three false narratives presented by politicians and the media to explain the 2020 nationwide increase in homicides: the expansion of bail reform, practices of progressive prosecutors, and attempts to defund the police. Our analysis reveals that the empirical data contradicts these narratives. Our data suggests that pandemic-induced instability and inequality are the primary drivers of recent increases in homicides.” Kesha S. Moore et al., The Truth Behind Crime Statistics: Avoiding Distortions and Improving Public Safety (Thurgood Marshall Institute, Legal Defense Fund, August 2022), www.naacpldf.org/wp-content/uploads/2022-08-03-TMI-Truth-in-Crime-Statistics-Report-FINAL-2.pdf, 3.

336 a 30 percent surge in homicides  “FBI: 2020 Homicides up Nearly 30%, Largest 1-Year Jump Ever,” Associated Press (AP) News, September 27, 2021, apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-health-crime-homicide-violent-crime-132443b2bc09707394698e6a90d3f388.

336 assault, burglary, and trespassing declined  Rachel E. Morgan and Alexandra Thompson, “Criminal Victimization, 2020,” Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin, U.S. Department of Justice, NCJ 301775, October 2021, bjs.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh236/files/media/document/cv20.pdf, 1–2.

336 news reports . . . ending in 2023  Examples include Lindsay Whitehurst, Associated Press, “New Report Points to Homicide Rate Declines in U.S. Cities After Pandemic Spike,” PBS, July 21, 2023, www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/new-report-points-to-homicide-rate-declines-in-u-s-cities-after-pandemic-spike; Shaila Dewan, “Murders in U.S. Fell 6 Percent in 2022 as Violent Crime Declined,” New York Times, October 16, 2023, www.nytimes.com/2023/10/16/us/fbi-crime-data-murders.html; AP, “Violent Crime Decreases to Pre-Pandemic Levels, According to FBI,” NBC News, October 17, 2023, www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/violent-crime-decreases-pre-pandemic-levels-according-fbi-rcna120757.

336 “God, fatherland, and family” Meloni is “comfortable . . . with some of the hallmarks of Italian fascism, including a motto she often utters from podiums: ‘Dio, patria, e famiglia!’ Or in English, "God, fatherland, and family." “Italy Votes In Its Most Right-Wing Government Since World War II, as Giorgia Meloni Sparks Fears of Fascism,” CBS Mornings, CBS News, September 26, 2022, www.cbsnews.com/news/giorgia-meloni-italy-election-results-brothers-of-italy-far-right-wing-government/.

336 undertook an uprising . . . and their fascist Italian collaborators  “The Allied Campaign in Italy, 1943–45: A Timeline, Part Three,” National WWII Museum (New Orleans), May 27, 2022, www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/allied-campaign-italy-1943-45-timeline-part-three;   and   Katy Dartford with Agencies, “Anti-Fascist Censorship Row Overshadows Italy’s Liberation Day Celebrations,” Euronews, April 25, 2024, www.euronews.com/my-europe/2024/04/25/anti-fascist-censorship-row-overshadows-italys-liberation-day-celebrations.

336 upwards of 100,000 people . . . in Milan  “Over 100,000 at April 25 Rally in Milan,” ANSA English, April 25, 2023, www.ansa.it/english/news/2023/04/25/over-100000-at-april-25-rally-in-milan_405bd6a6-9025-492a-a7a1-a28a34510155.html; and Giada Zampano, “Italy’s Meloni Calls for Unity on Liberation Day Anniversary,” AP News, April 25, 2023, apnews.com/article/italy-fascism-meloni-world-war-ii-resistance-7f526f6429fc002237206d03dc1efb8e#.

336 with photographs of . . . and Giorgia Meloni Ivan Romano, “People hold up placards with anti-fascist slogans and photographs of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Giorgia Meloni during a Liberation Day demonstration on April 25, 2023 in Naples, Italy,” photograph, April 25, 2023, Getty Images, www.gettyimages.co.nz/detail/news-photo/people-hold-up-placards-with-anti-fascist-slogans-and-news-photo/1485193010.

Chapter 88: Benito Mussolini

337 Hitler’s political idol  On Hitler’s early “adoration” of Mussolini, see Christian Goeschel, Mussolini and Hitler: The Forging of the Fascist Alliance (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018), 17–36. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/1050870931.

337 founder of fascism  Historian and Mussolini expert Ruth Ben-Ghiat explains, “Benito Mussolini came up with the term fascism, he created the first one-party fascist state and he set the playbook and template for everything that came after.” Ben-Ghiat quoted in Olivia B. Waxman, “What to Know About the Origins of Fascism’s Brutal Ideology,” Time, March 22, 2019, time.com/5556242/what-is-fascism/.

337 Like Hitler Hitler volunteered to serve in the Bavarian army in August 1914. Ian Kershaw, Hitler: A Biography (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2008), 53. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/500873821.

337 served in the army . . . from the anti-war Italian Socialist Party  Mussolini was conscripted into service in August 1915, one year after Hitler had volunteered to serve in the Bavarian army. Christopher Hibbert, Il Duce: The Life of Benito Mussolini (Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company, 1962), 24, 20–22. Visit search.worldcat.org/title/406067to find this book at a library near you.

337 elected Mussolini for the first time . . . newly formed National Fascist Party  Hibbert, Il Duce, 30. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/406067.

337 anti-socialist industrial and agrarian elites  “The general strike of August 1922 provided Mussolini with still more support. Agrarian, financial and industrial interests flocked to support the fascists as it became increasingly clear that their privileged positions were threatened.” See Paul M. Hayes, Fascism (London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1973), 56–57. Find this book at a library at search.worldcat.org/title/751213.

337 inflicting “purificatory” violence . . . and strikers  Amy King and Brian J. Griffith, “The Centennial of an Assassination in Italy Offers a Sober Warning for Today,” Made By History, Time, June 14, 2024, time.com/6987974/matteotti-assassination-centennial-lesson/.

337 led about 25,000 Blackshirts . . . demanded the resignation of . . . Facta  Hibbert, Il Duce, 33, 35. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/406067.

337 refused Facta’s request . . . Facta resigned in protest  Richard Brunies, “King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy,” National WWII Museum (New Orleans), July 14, 2021, www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/king-victor-emmanuel-iii-italy.

337 appointed . . . thinking he could restore order  Brunies, “King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy,” www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/king-victor-emmanuel-iii-italy.

337 violence, intimidation, and propaganda . . . two-thirds of parliament seats  Hibbert, Il Duce, 40–47; and “Italy: Election,” Time, April 14, 1924, time.com/archive/6651414/italy-election/. Find Il Duce at a library at search.worldcat.org/title/406067.

337–338 demanding that the “illegitimate” results . . . thrown out  Giacomo Matteotti, May 30, 1924, quoted in King and Griffith, “The Centennial of an Assassination in Italy Offers a Sober Warning for Today,” time.com/6987974/matteotti-assassination-centennial-lesson/.

338 scolded . . . interrupted . . . more than one hundred times  King and Griffith, “The Centennial of an Assassination in Italy Offers a Sober Warning for Today,” time.com/6987974/matteotti-assassination-centennial-lesson/.

338 half-joked with a colleague to write his eulogy Giacomo Matteotti reportedly told Socialist Giovanni Cosattini, “And now, get ready to deliver my funeral oration.” Matteotti quoted in Howard M. Sachar, The Assassination of Europe, 1918–1942: A Political History (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2015), 52. See also King and Griffith, “The Centennial of an Assassination in Italy Offers a Sober Warning for Today,” time.com/6987974/matteotti-assassination-centennial-lesson/. Visit search.worldcat.org/title/880499804to find The Assassination of Europe at a library.

338 abducted Matteotti . . . as he walked . . . Mauro Canali, “The Matteotti Murder and the Origins of Mussolini’s Totalitarian Fascist Regime in Italy,” Journal of Modern Italian Studies 14, no. 2 (2009), www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13545710902826378, 151–152; and Andrea Pisauro and Gianluca Fantoni, “The Murder of Giacomo Matteotti—Reinvestigating Italy’s Most Infamous Cold Case,” The Conversation, April 22, 2024, theconversation.com/the-murder-of-giacomo-matteotti-reinvestigating-italys-most-infamous-cold-case-228153.

338 “You can kill me” . . . “but you can never kill the idea within me”  Giacomo Matteotti quoted in King and Griffith, “The Centennial of an Assassination in Italy Offers a Sober Warning for Today,” time.com/6987974/matteotti-assassination-centennial-lesson/.

338 gripped Italy with demonstrations and protests  King and Griffith, “The Centennial of an Assassination in Italy Offers a Sober Warning for Today,” time.com/6987974/matteotti-assassination-centennial-lesson/.

338 Two weeks after  The “Aventine Secession,” as the withdrawal by these parties is known, occurred on June 27, 1924. This name is “derived from the withdrawal of the Roman population to the Aventine Hills in protest against the Patriciate in 493 bc.” “Aventine Secession,” Oxford Reference, accessed March 13, 2025, www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095436959.

338 nearly two months before . . . a dozen miles outside Rome  Matteotti’s body was discovered on August 16, 1924. Canali, “The Matteotti Murder and the Origins of Mussolini’s Totalitarian Fascist Regime in Italy,” www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13545710902826378, 151. See also Pisauro and Fantoni, “The Murder of Giacomo Matteotti—Reinvestigating Italy’s Most Infamous Cold Case,” theconversation.com/the-murder-of-giacomo-matteotti-reinvestigating-italys-most-infamous-cold-case-228153.

338 joined . . . and exited the Chamber of Deputies  King and Griffith, “The Centennial of an Assassination in Italy Offers a Sober Warning for Today,” time.com/6987974/matteotti-assassination-centennial-lesson/.

338 claimed absolute power, subjecting himself only . . .  King and Griffith, “The Centennial of an Assassination in Italy Offers a Sober Warning for Today,” time.com/6987974/matteotti-assassination-centennial-lesson/.

338 banned independent media and all opposition parties and organizations  King and Griffith, “The Centennial of an Assassination in Italy Offers a Sober Warning for Today,” time.com/6987974/matteotti-assassination-centennial-lesson/.

338 “the first man to transform a democracy into a dictatorship”  Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2021), 19. Find this book at a library at search.worldcat.org/title/1233267123.

338 the fall of France imminent . . . headed for a decisive victory  “In spring and summer 1940, Germany invaded and defeated Belgium, the Netherlands, and France . . . With the defeat of France in June 1940, virtually all of Western Europe fell under Nazi occupation.” “The Allies of WWII,” National WWII Museum, August 29, 2024, www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/allies-world-war-ii. See also “Axis Powers in World War II,” Holocaust Encyclopedia, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, April 22, 2022, encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/axis-powers-in-world-war-ii.

338 officially entered the war to share the spoils  Italy entered the war on June 10 and France surrendered on June 22, 1940. “Axis Powers in World War II,” Holocaust Encyclopedia, encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/axis-powers-in-world-war-ii; and “France,” Holocaust Encyclopedia, accessed March 13, 2025, encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/france. “Having formally joined the Axis in 1939, Italy declared war on Britain and France in June 1940, entering World War II as Germany’s ally. The Fascist regime hoped to establish a new ‘Roman’ Empire, encompassing the Mediterranean Sea and beyond into North and East Africa and into the Levant (Syria and Lebanon). Italy invaded France in June 1940 and occupied a small strip of land on the Franco-Italian border as part of the armistice agreement with Vichy France in June 1940. In the autumn of 1940, Italy attacked Greece and invaded British-influenced Egypt from bases in Libya, which Italy had conquered from the Ottoman Turks in 1911.” “Italy,” Holocaust Encyclopedia, accessed March 13, 2025, encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/italy.

338 had turned in the Allies’ favor . . . and in North Africa “On August 7, 1942, American forces landed on Guadalcanal, the first landed steps on the long road to Tokyo. On August 23, German forces reached the banks of the Volga River, and the monumental battle at Stalingrad commenced. In late October, Rommel and his forces received their first taste of decisive defeat at the hands of the British at El Alamein. The Americans joined the fight in North Africa with the successful landings on November 8. In the brutal Naval Battle of Guadalcanal fought over November 12–15, the Americans succeeded in isolating the Japanese forces remaining on the island, while at virtually the same time on November 19 the Soviets under General Zhukov successfully surrounded over 250,000 German troops of the Sixth Army. The Germans at Stalingrad and the Japanese on Guadalcanal starved, until the German surrender and Japanese evacuation that both took place in the first week of February 1943. Winston Churchill would later title his account of these six months as the ‘Hinge of Fate’ that changed the Allied fortunes, and eventually sent us in the direction of ultimate victory in World War II.” Axis forces in North Africa surrendered on May 13, 1943. Keith Huxen, “The US Invasion of North Africa,” National WWII Museum, January 9, 2018, www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/us-invasion-north-africa; and “The Allied Campaign in Italy, 1943-45: A Timeline, Part One,” National WWII Museum, May 23, 2022, www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/allied-campaign-italy-1943-45-timeline-part-one.

338 invaded Sicily and . . . on the Italian mainland  Keith Huxen, “Operation Husky: The Allied Invasion of Sicily,” National WWII Museum, July 12, 2017, www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/operation-husky-allied-invasion-sicily; and “The Allied Campaign in Italy, 1943-45: A Timeline, Part One,” www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/allied-campaign-italy-1943-45-timeline-part-one.

338 removed Mussolini . . . placed him under arrest “The Allied Campaign in Italy, 1943-45: A Timeline, Part One,” www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/allied-campaign-italy-1943-45-timeline-part-one.

338 rescued the incarcerated Mussolini  William Tuohy, “SS Officer Skorzeny Wrongly Credited With Deed, Historian Says: Mussolini Rescue: A New Version,” Los Angeles Times, December 26, 1987, www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-12-26-mn-7422-story.html; and Raphael Rues, “The Rescue of Benito Mussolini: the Real Story and Its Swiss Connection,” Swiss National Museum, blog, September 11, 2023, blog.nationalmuseum.ch/en/2023/09/the-rescue-of-benito-mussolini-the-real-story-and-its-swiss-connection/.  

338 appointed Mussolini . . . the Italian Social Republic Goeschel, Mussolini and Hitler 261, 263–269. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/1050870931.

338-339  defeated troops loyal to Mussolini and Hitler “The Allied Campaign in Italy, 1943-45: A Timeline, Part Three,” National WWII Museum (New Orleans), May 27, 2022, www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/allied-campaign-italy-1943-45-timeline-part-three.

339 captured him . . . executed Mussolini the next day Robert Citino, “Death of the Duce, Benito Mussolini,” National WWII Museum, April 28, 2020, www.nationalww2museum.org/death-of-benito-mussolini; and Goeschel, Mussolini and Hitler, 288–289. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/1050870931.

339 confirming Hitler’s final decision to die by suicide “While he was told about Mussolini’s execution by the partisans, it is uncertain whether he knew the macabre details of his erstwhile idol’s death. In any case, news of the Duce’s death confirmed Hitler’s plan to commit suicide, always on his mind in the event of defeat, in order to avoid a similarly grisly fate.” Goeschel, Mussolini and Hitler, 289. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/1050870931.

339 surrendered on April 29, 1945  “Representatives of the German command in Italy signed the surrender on April 29, and it became effective on May 2, 1945.” “Italy,” Holocaust Encyclopedia, encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/italy. See also “Instrument of Local Surrender of German and Other Forces Under the Command or Control of the German Commander-In-Chief Southwest; April 29, 1945,” The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy, Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School, accessed January 17, 2025, avalon.law.yale.edu/wwii/gs9.asp.

339 including José Antonio Kast’s father Esteban J. Uriburu, God’s Tabernacle: Barbara Kast, 1950–1968, trans. Tímea Horváth (Óbudavár, Hungary: Family Academy-Óbudavár Association, 2014), csaladok.schoenstatt.hu/sites/default/files/csaladok/olvass/barbara_kast.pdf, 11, via Google Translate.

339 refused to allow fascism to die John Whittam, Fascist Italy (Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1995), 138–139.  Visit search.worldcat.org/title/31436744to find this book at a local library.

339 created different groups Martin Durham, Women and Fascism (London: Routledge, 1998), 79. Find this book at a library at search.worldcat.org/title/437073347.

339 united in 1946 and named . . .Italian Social Movement  Durham, Women and Fascism, 79; and Whittam, Fascist Italy, 138–139. Library copies of Women and Fascism can be found at search.worldcat.org/title/437073347, and copies of Fascist Italy can be found at search.worldcat.org/title/31436744.

339 the organizational heir of the Italian Social Republic  Alessio Gagliardi and Matteo Pasetti, “Fascism in the Public Sphere of {ost-Fascist Italy,” Journal of Modern Italian Studies 29, no. 3 (2024), www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1354571X.2024.2354136, 246.

339 set up their offices on Via della Scrofa in Rome  Bernd Riegert, “Who Is Giorgia Meloni, the Star of the Italian Far Right?” Deutsche Welle (DW), September 26, 2022, www.dw.com/en/italy-election-who-is-giorgia-meloni-the-star-of-the-far-right/a-62604896.

339 the same Rome address  Riegert, “Who Is Giorgia Meloni, the Star of the Italian Far Right?” www.dw.com/en/italy-election-who-is-giorgia-meloni-the-star-of-the-far-right/a-62604896; and Nicole Winfield, “How a Party of Neo-Fascist Roots Won Big in Italy,” Associated Press (AP) News, September 26, 2022, apnews.com/article/elections-rome-italy-6aa9fcb003071c307190a4053f199d98.

339 remains the same as the original MSI logo  Winfield, “How a Party of Neo-Fascist Roots Won Big in Italy,” apnews.com/article/elections-rome-italy-6aa9fcb003071c307190a4053f199d98.

339 “their first duty was defensive, not offensive . . .”  Alexander Brown, “Italy’s Right Still Hasn’t Broken Its Ties to Fascism,” Jacobin, March 16, 2023, jacobin.com/2023/03/italy-right-fratelli-ditalia-giorgia-meloni-fascism-mussolinis-grandchildren.

Chapter 89: Italian Social Movement

340 the postwar antifascist consensus in Italy “The defeat of the Axis Powers in 1945 appeared to bring an end to the fascist nightmare . . . Fascism was discredited and became a term of abuse . . . Initially there were a few extreme right groups on the fringe, like the Movimento Sociale Italiano (MSI) in Italy. However, there was no public demand for the rebirth of Italian Fascism or hardcore German National-Socialism.” The Routledge Companion to Fascism and the Far Right, eds. Peter Davies and Derek Lynch (London: Routledge, 2002), 39. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/475960249.

340 operated behind the scenes in the MSI . . . Giorgio Almirante their leader  The Italian Social Movement “was officially led by a group of young ex-fascists with a low profile: the first general secretary was a young official of the RSI (Repubblica Sociale Italiana) (Italian Social Republic), Giorgio Almirante. But behind them, old and more experienced leaders of the fascist regime, who lived in hiding because of the prosecutions, guided the party. The MSI’s first ‘10 points’ programme somewhat veiled its ideological-political mould, insisting on ‘national conciliation’ and pacification, economic recovery, and so on . . . but all the symbolic and cultural references were unquestionably linked to fascism.” Piero Ignazi, Extreme Right Parties in Western Europe (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2003), 36. Find a library copy at search.worldcat.org/title/62132369.

340 the chief of staff of the Ministry of Popular Culture . . .  Associated Press, “Giorgio Almirante, Italian Neo-Fascist, Dies at 73,” New York Times, May 23, 1988, www.nytimes.com/1988/05/23/obituaries/giorgio-almirante-italian-neo-fascist-dies-at-73.html.

340 received funding from some . . . that had supported Mussolini  Dennis Eisenberg, The Re-emergence of Fascism (Worcester, UK: Trinity Press, 1967), 145–146, touches on the “influential group of landowners, businessmen and industrialists who suppl[ied] much of the necessary financial support” in the early years of the MSI’s existence, especially after the appointment of the famed fascist naval commander Junio Valerio Borghese as honorary president. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/394409?oclcNum=394409.

340 six deputies (out of 574) and one senator (out of 237)  Chamber of Deputies, April 18, 1948, The Historical Archive of Elections, Ministry of the Interior, Central Directorate of Electoral Services, elezionistorico.interno.gov.it/index.php?tpel=C&dtel=18/04/1948&es0=S&tpa=I&lev0=0&levsut0=0&ms=S&tpe=A, via Google Translate; and Senate, April 18, 1948, The Historical Archive of Elections, elezionistorico.interno.gov.it/index.php?tpel=S&dtel=18/04/1948&es0=S&tpa=I&lev0=0&levsut0=0&ms=S&tpe=A, via Google Translate.

340 unbending anti-NATO stance . . . opening to remove him R. J. B. Bosworth, Mussolini’s Italy: Life Under the Fascist Dictatorship, 1915–1945 (New York: Penguin, 2007), 548. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/85484316.

340 a journalist and . . . took over in 1950  Augusto De Marsanich “had been an important if second-rank figure throughout the[Mussolini] dictatorship . . . He had published in Critica Fascista, was promoted to be Under-Secretary of Communications from 1935 to 1943, while remaining long-time head of the PNF’s [National Fascist Party’s] legal office.” During the years of the Italian Social Republic, De Marsanich was “charged . . . with the management of Alfa Romeo and the Banco di Roma.” Bosworth, Mussolini’s Italy, 548–549. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/85484316.

340 led the party’s . . . Arturo Michelini  Mario Caciagli, “The Movimento Sociale Italiano–Destra Nazionale and Neo-Fascism in Italy,” in Right-Wing Extremism in Western Europe, ed. Klaus von Beyme (Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2013), 23. Michelini’s obituary in the New York Times stated, “Mr. Michelini joined Mussolini’s Fascist party as soon as he finished studies in accounting at 18.” “Arturo Michelini, Neo-Fascist Leader,” New York Times, June 16, 1969, nyti.ms/4iGy8xe, 47. Visit search.worldcat.org/title/1103528325to find Right-Wing Extremism in Western Europe at a library near you.

340 to make the MSI more electable versus . . . Caciagli, “The Movimento Sociale Italiano–Destra Nazionale and Neo-Fascism in Italy,” 23. Find a library copy of Right-Wing Extremism in Western Europe, in which Caciagli’s piece appears, at search.worldcat.org/title/1103528325.

340 reclaimed the party helm in 1969, he bridged the factions Caciagli, “The Movimento Sociale Italiano–Destra Nazionale and Neo-Fascism in Italy,” 23–24. For a contemporaneous account, see Melton S. Davis, “Almirante Is No M-s---i—Yet,” New York Times, June 6, 1971, www.nytimes.com/1971/06/06/archives/almirante-is-no-msi-yet-almirante-is-no-msiyet.html. Find a library copy of Right-Wing Extremism in Western Europe, in which Caciagli’s piece appears, at search.worldcat.org/title/1103528325.

340 subsequently grew in the 1970s  “In 1973, at the peak of Almirante’s secretariat, there were . . . 4,335 sections, with 420,000 registered members.” Antonio Carioti, “From the Ghetto to Palazzo Chigi: The Ascent of the National Alliance,” Italian Politics 10 (1996), www.jstor.org/stable/45402576, 74.

341 a tax adviser . . . a novelist . . . Giorgia  Angus Holland, “‘I Am Giorgia’: Italy’s Far-Right Leader and the Confounding World of Italian Politics,” Sydney Morning Herald, August 4, 2024, www.smh.com.au/national/i-am-giorgia-italy-s-far-right-leader-and-the-confounding-world-of-italian-politics-20240722-p5jvka.html.

341 abandoned . . . sinking them into poverty  Holland, “‘I Am Giorgia,’” www.smh.com.au/national/i-am-giorgia-italy-s-far-right-leader-and-the-confounding-world-of-italian-politics-20240722-p5jvka.html.

341 more than a thousand terror attacks “The years from 1969 to 1988 are conventionally defined as the ‘Years of Lead’ because of the quantity, frequency, and virulence of political violence. According to our data, Italy experienced over 8000 conflict events, including domestic terrorist attacks and other forms of political violence, leading to hundreds of deaths and several thousand wounded victims.” Figure 1 shows the number of violent acts committed by “neofascist groups,” which tally over one thousand. Stefano Costalli et al., “The Violent Legacy of Fascism: Evidence From Italy,” Comparative Political Studies 58, no. 14 (2024), doi.org/10.1177/00104140241252089, 4, 15.

341 bombed . . . killing eighty-five people  “In the bloody aftermath, rescue squads worked for over twelve hours to pull the dead and maimed from the rubble. As they labored, a young neofascist entered a telephone booth across town and dialed Bologna’s leading newspaper. ‘This is the Armed Revolutionary Nuclei,’ he said. ‘We claim responsibility for the explosion in the railway station.’ The final toll: eighty-five dead—the eldest an eighty-six-year-old man, the youngest a three-year-old child—and more than two hundred wounded.” Thomas Sheehan, “Italy: Terror on the Right,” New York Review of Books, January 22, 1981, www.nybooks.com/articles/1981/01/22/italy-terror-on-the-right/.

341 The more . . . the more . . . pulled away from the party  Piero Ignazi, “Fascists and Post-Fascists,” in The Oxford Handbook of Italian Politics, eds. Erik Jones and Gianfranco Pasquino (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2015), 217–218. Find an edition of this book at a library at search.worldcat.org/title/1039409889.

341 decried political violence  Ignazi, “Fascists and Post-Fascists,” 218. Find a library copy of The Oxford Handbook of Italian Politics, in which this chapter appears, at search.worldcat.org/title/1039409889.

341 rehabilitated its image “A few examples demonstrate this change of political climate: in 1983 the socialist prime minister, Bettino Craxi, declared, during the parliamentary confidence debate, that he would treat all parliamentary groups in the same vein without any discrimination; MSI leaders were invited, for the first time, to public meetings together with other antifascist party leaders; and the MSI secretary, Almirante, was admitted to the PCI [Italian Communist Party] headquarters, in June 1984, at the funeral of the PCI secretary, Enrico Berlinguer.” Ignazi, “Fascists and Post-Fascists,” 219. Find a library copy of The Oxford Handbook of Italian Politics, in which this chapter appears, at search.worldcat.org/title/1039409889.

341 took over the party in 1987 For details on the Sorrento Congress in December 1987, at which Fini was elected as the new leader of MSI, see Giovanni Tassani, “The Italian Social Movement: from Almirante to Fini,” Italian Politics 4 (1990), www.jstor.org/stable/43039624, 129, 130–132, 134.

341 volunteered for the Italian Social Republic  Mauro Giordano, "Gianfranco Fini Turns 71: Politics, Wives, Daughters, the Brother-in-Law Case and the Return,” Corriere di Bologna, January 3, 2023, corrieredibologna.corriere.it/bologna/politica/cards/gianfranco-fini-compie-71-anni-politica-mogli-figlie-caso-cognato-ritorno/gianfranco-fini-origini-famiglia-nonno-comunista_principale.shtml, via Google Translate.

341 died in 1988 See AP, “Giorgio Almirante, Italian Neo-Fascist, Dies at 73,” www.nytimes.com/1988/05/23/obituaries/giorgio-almirante-italian-neo-fascist-dies-at-73.html.

341  joined MSI’s Youth Front in 1992 Amy Kazmin and Giuliana Ricozzi, “Hard-Right Giorgia Meloni’s Rise from Rough Streets to Cusp of Power in Italy,” Financial Times, September 6, 2022, www.ft.com/content/530de94d-6aef-45d7-aa8e-a1211284745c.

341 helped found . . . The Ancestors “Biography,” Sito Ufficiale di Giorgia Meloni (Official Website of Giorgia Meloni), accessed March 24, 2025, www.giorgiameloni.it/biografia/, via Google Translate.

Chapter 90: Fascist-Antifascist

342 direct line of descent from Mussolini’s fascism Nicole Winfield, “How a Party of Neo-Fascist Roots Won Big in Italy,” Associated Press (AP) News, September 26, 2022, apnews.com/article/elections-rome-italy-6aa9fcb003071c307190a4053f199d98.

342 deleted . . . celebrated each year  Historian Amy King writes of a letter by Meloni published in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera on Liberation Day in 2023, “Meloni’s letter, published on a day intended to mark freedom from fascism, was remarkable for its failure to mention ‘antifascism’ once.” Amy King, “Contested Memory in Giorgia Meloni’s Italy: How Her Far-Right Party Is Waging a Subtle Campaign to Commemorate Fascist Figures,” The Conversation, August 14, 2023, theconversation.com/contested-memory-in-giorgia-melonis-italy-how-her-far-right-party-is-waging-a-subtle-campaign-to-commemorate-fascist-figures-211465.

342 “the fascist-antifascist binary . . .” King, “Contested Memory in Giorgia Meloni’s Italy,” theconversation.com/contested-memory-in-giorgia-melonis-italy-how-her-far-right-party-is-waging-a-subtle-campaign-to-commemorate-fascist-figures-211465.

342 as victims of fascism and contributors . . .  King, “Contested Memory in Giorgia Meloni’s Italy,” theconversation.com/contested-memory-in-giorgia-melonis-italy-how-her-far-right-party-is-waging-a-subtle-campaign-to-commemorate-fascist-figures-211465.

342 the “divisive” fascist-antifascist binary “‘April 25 Is Divisive’ Meloni Calls for National Holiday to Be November 4,” Agenzia Giornalistica Italia (AGI), October 31, 2018, www.agi.it/politica/news/2018-10-31/meloni_festa_nazionale_4_novembre_25_aprile-4554680/, via Google Translate; and “President Meloni’s Letter to the Corriere della Sera Newspaper on Liberation Day,” Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Italian Government, April 25, 2023, www.governo.it/it/node/22468.

342 the international bestseller “M: Son of the Century,” HarperCollins Publishers, accessed March 14, 2025, www.harpercollins.com/products/m-son-of-the-century-antonio-scurati. To find Antonio Scurati, M: Son of the Century, trans. Anne Milano Appel (New York: Harper, 2021) at a library, visit search.worldcat.org/title/1306239633.

342 won Italy’s most prestigious literary prize “Strega Prize 2019, Antonio Scurati Wins with 228 Votes: ‘I Dedicate the Victory to Those Who Fought Fascism,’” la Repubblica, July 5, 2019, www.repubblica.it/robinson/2019/07/05/news/premio_strega_2019_vince_antonio_scurati_con_228_voti-230388207/,via Google Translate; and “Italian Premio Strega Collection in the Library of Congress,” Library of Congress Research Guides, accessed March 14, 2025, guides.loc.gov/premio-strega.

342 “Will the heirs to that history recognize it once and for all?”  Antonio Scurati, “Liberation Day Monologue,” CounterPunch, April 23, 2024, www.counterpunch.org/2024/04/23/liberation-day-monologue/.

342–343 “could have gone down one of these two paths . . .”  Scurati, “Liberation Day Monologue,” www.counterpunch.org/2024/04/23/liberation-day-monologue/.

343 “It has undoubtedly taken the second path”  Scurati, “Liberation Day Monologue,” www.counterpunch.org/2024/04/23/liberation-day-monologue/.

343 “historical anniversaries”  Scurati, “Liberation Day Monologue,” www.counterpunch.org/2024/04/23/liberation-day-monologue/.

343  “blamed the massacres . . . on the Nazis alone”  Scurati, “Liberation Day Monologue,” www.counterpunch.org/2024/04/23/liberation-day-monologue/.

343 “the word ‘anti-fascism’”  Scurati, “Liberation Day Monologue,” www.counterpunch.org/2024/04/23/liberation-day-monologue/.

343 “Until that word . . . to haunt the house of Italian democracy”  Scurati, “Liberation Day Monologue,” www.counterpunch.org/2024/04/23/liberation-day-monologue/.

343 One of the spring 1944 massacres . . . the Ardeatine Caves massacre “In this false spring of ours, however, we are not only commemorating Matteotti’s political murder. We are also commemorating the 1944 Nazi-fascist massacres perpetrated by the German SS, with the complicity and collaboration of the Italian fascists, those that were carried out at the Fosse Ardeatine, Sant’Anna di Stazzema and Marzabotto. These are just some of the places where Mussolini’s demonic allies massacred thousands of defenceless Italian civilians in cold blood.” Scurati, “Liberation Day Monologue,” www.counterpunch.org/2024/04/23/liberation-day-monologue/.

343 “335 innocent Italians” . . . “killed simply because they were Italian” “President Meloni’s Statement on Anniversary of the Fosse Ardeatine Massacre,” Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Italian Government, March 24, 2023, www.governo.it/en/articolo/president-meloni-s-statement-anniversary-fosse-ardeatine-massacre/22190.

343 mostly political prisoners and Jews . . . antifascist (and anti-Nazi)  “The majority of the victims taken by the SD [Security Service of the SS] were Italians already serving prison sentences, many of them for their activities in the Resistance. After the Nazis finished rounding up the hostages, they held 335 men, five over the quota. 57 of them were Jews. Some were just grabbed randomly off the streets of Rome. The youngest was 15, the oldest over 70.” Jason Dawsey, “The Italian Resistance and the Ardeatine Caves Massacre,” National WWII Museum (New Orleans), July 23, 2019, www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/italian-resistance-and-ardeatine-caves-massacre.

343 authorized the mass killing in retaliation for  . . .   Dawsey, “The Italian Resistance and the Ardeatine Caves Massacre,” www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/italian-resistance-and-ardeatine-caves-massacre; and “Ardeatine Caves Massacre,” Holocaust Encyclopedia, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, accessed March 25, 2025, encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/ardeatine-caves-massacre.

343 largely hailed from Italy’s South Tyrol . . .  “Ardeatine Caves Massacre,” encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/ardeatine-caves-massacre.

343 forty-two officers dead  Dawsey, “The Italian Resistance and the Ardeatine Caves Massacre,” www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/italian-resistance-and-ardeatine-caves-massacre.

343 arrested 13,000 Jewish people . . . primarily Auschwitz Every two or three days for the next two months, Nazis bring roughly 1,000 Jewish people to Auschwitz. “The Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup,” Yad Vashem: The World Holocaust Remembrance Center, accessed March 25, 2025, www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/france/vel-dhiv-roundup.html.

343 “It’s not France” Marine Le Pen stated, “I don’t think France is responsible for the Vel d’Hiv . . . I think that generally speaking if there are people responsible, it’s those who were in power at the time. It’s not France.” Marine Le Pen quoted in “Le Pen Denies French Responsibility in WWII Round-Up of Paris Jews,” France 24, October 4, 2017, www.france24.com/en/20170410-le-pen-denies-french-responsability-wwii-round-paris-jews-vel-hiv.

344 faced “No Kings” protests  “‘No Kings’ Protests Across the United States,” New York Times, June 14, 2025, www.nytimes.com/2025/06/14/us/protests-cities-no-kings.html; and Alaina Demopoulos, “Were the No Kings Protests the Largest Single-Day Demonstration in American History?” The Guardian, June 19, 2025, www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/19/no-kings-how-many-protesters-attended; Steve Gorman and Brad Brooks, “‘No Kings’ Protests Draw Large Crowds in US Cities to Decry Trump,” Reuters, October 18, 2025, www.reuters.com/world/us/no-kings-rallies-expected-draw-millions-across-us-protest-against-trump-2025-10-18/.

344 celebrated pro-slavery Confederates For examples, see Time, “President Trump Praises Robert E. Lee as a Great General During a Rally in Ohio | TIME,” YouTube, October 15, 2018, youtu.be/oeMwKD93B2g?si=UVk_jBrpVnzT87PM; and Associated Press, “Restoration of Torn-Down Confederate Monument Will Cost $10 Million Over 2 Years, Military Says,” NBC News, August 7, 2025, www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/restoration-torn-confederate-monument-will-cost-10-million-2-years-mil-rcna223633.

344 opposed women’s reproductive rights  For examples, see Nina Totenberg and Sarah McCammon, “Supreme Court Overturns Roe v. Wade, Ending Right to Abortion Upheld for Decades,” All Things Considered, NPR, June 24, 2022, www.npr.org/2022/06/24/1102305878/supreme-court-abortion-roe-v-wade-decision-overturn; Mary Clare Jalonick, “Republicans Block Bill to Protect Contraception Access as Democrats Make Election-Year Push,” Associated Press (AP) News, June 5, 2024, apnews.com/article/contraception-senate-abortion-biden-trump-reproductive-rights-3f9e8546624a3acf8e64d1138fcb84b1; Julie Rovner, “Trump’s Already Gone Back on His Promise to Leave Abortion to States,” KFF Health News, February 5, 2025, kffhealthnews.org/news/article/trump-executive-order-hyde-amendment-abortion-pentagon/; Brittni Frederiksen et al., “Title X Grantees and Clinics Affected by the Trump Administration’s Funding Freeze,” KFF, April 15, 2025, www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/title-x-grantees-and-clinics-affected-by-the-trump-administrations-funding-freeze/; and Aaron Glantz, “New Trump Rule to Ban VA Abortions for Veterans Even in Cases of Rape and Incest,” The Guardian, August 29, 2025, www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/29/trump-veterans-affairs-abortion-ban.

344 advocated the colonization of Canada and Greenland Jessie Yeung and Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, “Trump Renews Threat of Military Force to Annex Greenland,” CNN, May 4, 2025, www.cnn.com/2025/05/04/world/greenland-annexation-threat-trump-nbc-interview-intl-hnk.

344 called fascist  See Emma Bowman, “Harris Called Trump a ‘Fascist.’ Experts Debate What Fascism Is—and Isn’t,” NPR, October 29, 2024, www.npr.org/2024/10/29/nx-s1-5164488/harris-trump-fascist-explained.

344 “European monarchy” . . . as well as “slavery . . . and (today) wokeism”  Kevin D. Roberts, “Foreword: A Promise to America,” in Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, Project 2025 Presidential Transition Project, eds. Paul Dans and Steven Groves (Washington, DC: The Heritage Foundation, 2023), static.heritage.org/project2025/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf, 14.

344 attends the wreath-laying ceremony  “Mattarella Lays Wreath in Rome for Liberation Day,” ANSA English, April 25, 2023, www.ansa.it/english/news/general_news/2023/04/25/mattarella-lays-wreath-in-rome-for-liberation-day_6ce96ead-b7da-4890-8eaa-ca77142fefb1.html.

Chapter 91: Resistance

346 “Dear editor, today . . .” “President Meloni’s Letter to the Corriere della Sera Newspaper on Liberation Day,” Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Italian Government, April 25, 2023, www.governo.it/it/node/22468.

346 Italy’s most widely circulated newspaper  “DMS Data 2025: February 2025 Newspapers, Weekly Newspaper Editions,” Accertamenti Diffusione Stampa (ADS), accessed March 25, 2025, available at www.adsnotizie.it/Dati/DMS_Page#, via Google Translate. Meloni had previously written several other letters to Corriere della Sera to make a political point, including one proposing sea desalination for drinking water (July 10, 2022), one on immigration—condemning comparisons between the Italian immigrants who lost their lives in Belgium in the Marcinelle mining disaster in 1956 to contemporary immigrants to Italy (August 7, 2022), and one on Italian anarchist Alfredo Cospito (February 4, 2023). Giorgia Meloni, “Giorgia Meloni: More Technological Water Network and Drinkable Water from the Sea. This Is How to Fight Drought (While Respecting the Environment),” Corriere della Sera, July 10, 2022, http://www.corriere.it/cronache/22_luglio_10/giorgia-meloni-lettera-9dd6f7aa-ffb9-11ec-a15c-229c03190307.shtml, via Google Translate; Meloni, “Marcinelle and the Migrants, Different Stories,” opinion, Corriere della Sera, August 7, 2022, www.corriere.it/opinioni/22_agosto_07/marcinelle-migranti-storie-diverse-f5c6d216-1687-11ed-9b98-cecb1a656088.shtml, via Google Translate; and Meloni, “Meloni on the Cospito Case: ‘No Basis for Delmastro’s Resignation. Now Everyone Should Tone It Down, Including Fratelli d’Italia,’" Corriere della Sera, February 23, 2023, www.corriere.it/politica/23_febbraio_04/meloni-cospito-lettera-ac56d0dc-a484-11ed-a9a2-20247d5f06f9.shtml, via Google Translate.

346 a long history of associating migrants and crime  A study of headlines and articles in Corriere della Sera from 1992 to 2009 found an enduring “association between migrants and crime” in the paper’s content. See Lorenzo Montali et al, “The Representation of Migrants in the Italian Press: A Study on the Corriere della Sera (1992–2009),” Journal of Language and Politics 12, no. 2 (January 2013) ,doi.org/10.1075/jlp.12.2.04mon, 226, 239.

346 “I hope” . . . ”contribute to making . . . bastion of democracy”  “President Meloni’s letter to the Corriere della Sera newspaper on Liberation Day,” Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Italian Government, www.governo.it/it/node/22468.

346 “saw these reflections fully mature . . .”  “President Meloni’s letter to the Corriere della Sera newspaper on Liberation Day,” www.governo.it/it/node/22468.

346 corruption scandals . . . ran for mayor of Rome . . . ran for mayor of Naples  William Drozdiak, “Italians Use Vote to Vent Anger Over Scandals,” Washington Post, November 22, 1993, www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1993/11/23/italians-use-vote-to-vent-anger-over-scandals/2d7e5f39-eb88-430f-8568-38323e380f58/. 

346 47 percent of the vote . . . 44 percent . . . Both lost  Piero Ignazi, Extreme Right Parties in Western Europe (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2003), 44. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/62132369.

346 never secured even 10 percent  MSI’s best performance in parliamentary elections to that point had been in 1972, when the party secured 8.67% of votes for the Chamber of Deputies and 9.19% of votes for the Senate. Chamber of Deputies, May 7, 1972, The Historical Archive of Elections, elezionistorico.interno.gov.it/index.php?tpel=C&dtel=07/05/1972&es0=S&tpa=I&lev0=0&levsut0=0&ms=S&tpe=A, via Google Translate; and Senate, May 7, 1972, The Historical Archive of Elections, elezionistorico.interno.gov.it/index.php?tpel=S&dtel=07/05/1972&es0=S&tpa=I&lev0=0&levsut0=0&ms=S&tpe=A, via Google Translate.

346 caused . . . to turn to the MSI  Berlusconi had voiced support for Gianfranco Fini in the mayoral election in Rome, saying, “If I were in Rome, I would certainly vote for Fini.” After Berlusconi launched Forza Italia (FI) in January 1994, “In southern and central Italy, FI and Fini’s party were able to agree to run on a common platform, the Pole of Good Government, which produced a common slate of FI and AN [National Alliance] candidates.” Tom Gallagher, “Exit from the Ghetto: The Italian Far Right in the 1990s,” in The Politics of the Extreme Right: From the Margins to the Mainstream, ed. Paul Hainsworth (London: Pinter, 2000), 72 (Berlusconi quote), 73 (on FI and AN). Visit search.worldcat.org/title/957700940to find an edition of this book at your local library.

346 announced the rebranding  Fini created the National Alliance organization in January 1994. MSI was dissolved a year later and became the National Alliance party. Alan Cowell, “Berlusconi and Cabinet with Neo-Fascists Take Office in Italy,” New York Times, May 12, 1994, www.nytimes.com/1994/05/12/world/berlusconi-and-cabinet-with-neo-fascists-take-office-in-italy.html; and “The Italian Right: 3 Men to Watch: Gianfranco Fini, National Alliance,” New York Times, March 30, 1994, https://nyti.ms/3XxNAmN, 6; and Peter Shadbolt “Italy’s Hard Right Dissolves fascist past,” United Press International (UPI), January 28, 1995, www.upi.com/Archives/1995/01/28/Italys-hard-right-dissolves-fascist-past/1080791269200/.

346–347 formed a coalition and a political party. . . to take on . . .  William D. Montalbano, “Rightists Win Historic Vote in Italy: Europe: Media Tycoon Silvio Berlusconi Is Front-Runner for Prime Minister; His Three-Party Alliance Leads in Both Houses of Parliament. Corruption Furor Propels Shift from Centrist Rule,” Los Angeles Times, March 29, 1994, www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-03-29-mn-39808-story.html. Berlusconi’s announcement of Forza Italia on January 26, 1994 can be seen at Forza Italia, “Silvio Berlusconi—Discorso discesa in campo—26 gennaio 1994,” YouTube, January 25, 2024, youtu.be/aStF2b5ryJg?si=6oaJPb2nCTPKnebp.

347 founded . . . became the largest private broadcaster in Italy “Factbox: Berlusconi’s Business Empire,” Reuters, August 1, 2013, www.reuters.com/article/world/factbox-berlusconis-business-empire-idUSBRE97017P/; and Agustino Fontevecchia, “Berlusconi’s Tax Fraud: Using Offshore Accounts to Make $349M on U.S. TV and Movie Rights,” Forbes, October 26, 2012, www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2012/10/26/berlusconis-tax-evasion-using-offshore-accounts-to-make-349m-on-u-s-tv-and-movie-rights/.

347 became prime minister of the first . . . since World War II Alan Cowell, “Italy’s Right Wing Heads for Victory in Landmark Vote,” New York Times, March 29, 1994, www.nytimes.com/1994/03/29/world/italy-s-right-wing-heads-for-victory-in-landmark-vote.html; and William Drozdiak, “No Fascists in Cabinet, Italy’s New Premier Says,” Washington Post, May 26, 1994, www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1994/05/27/no-fascists-in-cabinet-italys-new-premier-says/4e6113ff-b301-4ac9-be74-214beefc3a6c/.

347 usurped  George Newth, “Matteo Salvini, Giorgia Meloni, and ‘Post-Fascism’ as Political Logic,” Political Studies Association, September 9, 2022, www.psa.ac.uk/matteo-salvini-giorgia-meloni-and-post-fascism-as-political-logic/.

347 Four days after the election . . . in . . . La Stampa  Alan Cowell, “Leader of Italian Neo-Fascists Praises Mussolini,” New York Times, April 2, 1994, www.nytimes.com/1994/04/02/world/leader-of-italian-neo-fascists-praises-mussolini.html.

Chapter 92: Great Replacement of History

348 “the greatest statesman of the century” Gianfranco Fini quoted in Alberto Statera, “Il migliore resta Mussolini,” La Stampa, April 1, 1994, quoted in and translated by Matteo Pasetti, “The ‘Fascist Threat’ in Berlusconi’s Italy,” Journal of Modern Italian Studies 29, no. 3 (2024), www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1354571X.2024.2349841, 324.

348  “will have to make an extraordinary effort . . .” Fini quoted in Statera, “Il migliore resta Mussolini,” quoted in and translated by Pasetti, “The ‘Fascist Threat’ in Berlusconi’s Italy,” www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1354571X.2024.2349841, 324.

348 vast demonstrations on Liberation Day  Pasetti, “The ‘Fascist Threat’ in Berlusconi’s Italy,” www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1354571X.2024.2349841, 324–325. See also William D. Montalbano, “Italians Mark WWII Victory over Fascism,” Los Angeles Times, April 26, 1994, www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-04-26-mn-50687-story.html.

348 stayed home. He claimed the “left” . . .”  Pasetti, “The ‘Fascist Threat’ in Berlusconi’s Italy,” www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1354571X.2024.2349841, 325.

348 spoke about the defeat of “fascism in Europe”  Silvio Berlusconi, opening speech to the Chamber of Deputies, May 16, 1994, quoted in Pasetti, “The ‘Fascist Threat’ in Berlusconi’s Italy,” www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1354571X.2024.2349841, 325.

348 “a great statesman” Silvio Berlusconi quoted in William Drozdiak, “No Fascists in Cabinet, Italy’s New Premier Says,” Washington Post, May 26, 1994, www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1994/05/27/no-fascists-in-cabinet-italys-new-premier-says/4e6113ff-b301-4ac9-be74-214beefc3a6c/.

348 “away liberties” . . . “the country into war . . . for a while, Mussolini did some . . .”  Berlusconi quoted in Drozdiak, “No Fascists in Cabinet,” www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1994/05/27/no-fascists-in-cabinet-italys-new-premier-says/4e6113ff-b301-4ac9-be74-214beefc3a6c/.

348 murdered thousands of political opponents Historian and Mussolini expert R. J. B. Bosworth estimates that between 1919 and 1925 alone, Mussolini was responsible for “the murder of two thousand and more political opponents.” R. J. B. Bosworth, Mussolini and the Eclipse of Italian Fascism: From Dictatorship to Populism (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2021), 116. Visit search.worldcat.org/title/1244811399to find this book at a local library.

348 “never killed anyone” . . . “on holiday in exile” Silvio Berlusconi quoted in Gianluca Luzi, “Berlusconi choc su Mussolini,” la Repubblica, September 12, 2003, quoted in and translated by Pasetti, “The ‘Fascist Threat’ in Berlusconi’s Italy,” www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1354571X.2024.2349841, 326.

348 “as a somewhat benevolent and philanthropic dictatorship”  Pasetti, “The ‘Fascist Threat’ in Berlusconi’s Italy,” www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1354571X.2024.2349841, 326.

348–349 lost in the 1996 Italian general election  Daniel Williams, “Leftists Claim Victory in Italian Election,” Washington Post, April 22, 1996, www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/04/22/leftists-claim-victory-in-italian-election/a0d48742-b3c9-4a3d-bffc-e9af0419e6bf/.

349 the party’s new national youth leader Clarida Salvatori and Laura Martellini, “Giorgia Meloni, from the Youth Front to the Triumph in the Elections: The Stages of Her Career,” Corriere Roma, September 28, 2022, roma.corriere.it/cronaca/cards/giorgia-meloni-fronte-gioventu-trionfo-elezioni-tappe-carriera/militanza-giovanile-fdg-azione-studentesca_principale.shtml, via Google Translate.

349 “For me, Mussolini was a good politician” INA Politique, “1996: Giorgia Meloni ‘Mussolini était un bon politicien’ | Archive INA,” YouTube, September 23, 2022, youtu.be/XuoXr-zjqas?si=We87ud9AZyFyjJGV, 0:45–0:49, via Google Translate.

349 “Everything he did, he did for Italy . . .”  INA Politique, “1996: Giorgia Meloni ‘Mussolini était un bon politicien’   Archive INA,” youtu.be/XuoXr-zjqas?si=We87ud9AZyFyjJGV, 0:50–0:54.

349 coalition won “Berlusconi Wins Senate Majority,” The Guardian, May 14, 2001, www.theguardian.com/world/2001/may/14/1.

349 prime minister until 2006  Frances D’Emilio, “Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s Tarnished 3-Time Premier, Dies at 86,” Associated Press (AP) News, June 12, 2023, apnews.com/article/berlusconi-dead-remembrance-c7caf48435ab4f2a81032df2ba2007e1.

349 elected . . . to the Chamber of Deputies  Bernd Riegert, “Who Is Giorgia Meloni, the Star of the Italian Far Right?” Deutsche Welle (DW), September 26, 2022, www.dw.com/en/italy-election-who-is-giorgia-meloni-the-star-of-the-far-right/a-62604896.

349 joined the third . . . as the Italian minister of youth  Stefano Pitrelli and Anthony Faiola, “Berlusconi’s Testosterone Politics Have Been Overtaken by Women in Italy,” Washington Post, June 12, 2023, www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/06/12/silvio-berlusconi-women-giorgia-meloni-italy/.

349 helped form Brothers of Italy Nicole Winfield, “How a Party of Neo-Fascist Roots Won Big in Italy,” AP News, September 26, 2022, apnews.com/article/elections-rome-italy-6aa9fcb003071c307190a4053f199d98.

349 assumed the presidency . . . in 2014  “Profile: Giorgia Meloni, Prime Minister, Italy,” Forbes, accessed March 27, 2025, www.forbes.com/profile/giorgia-meloni/.

349 “the vast majority of them African men”  Giorgia Meloni, “Dress rehearsals for ethnic substitution in Italy . . .” Facebook, October 6, 2016, www.facebook.com/giorgiameloni.paginaufficiale/posts/prove-generali-di-sostituzione-etnica-in-italia-nel-2015-pi%C3%B9-di-100-mila-italian/10154534547787645, archived at Wayback Machine, February 10, 2026 capture, web.archive.org/web/20260210170713/http://web.archive.org/screenshot/https://www.facebook.com/giorgiameloni.paginaufficiale/posts/prove-generali-di-sostituzione-etnica-in-italia-nel-2015-pi%C3%B9-di-100-mila-italian/10154534547787645, via Google Translate.

349 “dress rehearsals for ethnic substitution”  Meloni, “Dress rehearsals for ethnic substitution in Italy . . .” www.facebook.com/giorgiameloni.paginaufficiale/posts/prove-generali-di-sostituzione-etnica-in-italia-nel-2015-pi%C3%B9-di-100-mila-italian/10154534547787645, archived at web.archive.org/web/20260210170713/http://web.archive.org/screenshot/https://www.facebook.com/giorgiameloni.paginaufficiale/posts/prove-generali-di-sostituzione-etnica-in-italia-nel-2015-pi%C3%B9-di-100-mila-italian/10154534547787645.

349 another phrase Renaud Camus used  Renaud Camus writes, “The Great Replacement, ethnic substitution, the change of people and civilisation, is by far the biggest and most urgent problem Western countries have to face.” Renaud Camus, You Will Not Replace Us!, (Plieux, France: Renaud Camus, 2018), 188. See also 23, 36, 62, 64, 66, 70, 83, 185. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/1091051149.

349 “big capital” . . . “for low-cost labor, slaves” Mediatime Network, “Giorgia Meloni Against Ethnic Substitution,” YouTube, January 29, 2017, youtu.be/4EzNi5PGbRA?si=V5pgowh_wJW3sWQ1, 0:01–1:08, via Google Translate. See also Carlo Canepa, “Every Time Meloni and Salvini Talked about ‘Ethnic Substitution,’” Pagella Politica, April 19, 2023, pagellapolitica-it.translate.goog/articoli/meloni-salvini-sostituzione-etnica. 

349 “It’s called ethnic substitution”  Mediatime Network, "Giorgia Meloni Against Ethnic Substitution," youtu.be/4EzNi5PGbRA?si=V5pgowh_wJW3sWQ1, 1:15–1:18.

349 “there is an ethnic substitution plan in Italy”  Vista Agenzia Televisiva Nazionale, “Ethnic Substitution, What Giorgia Meloni Said 6 Years Ago," YouTube, April 24, 2023, youtu.be/EgVdu6ZYgWY?si=Xzgueb2O8DjmzpJg, 0:12–0:15, via Google Translate.

349 “an accomplice of the uncontrolled immigration . . .” Giorgia Meloni, Twitter, February 3, 2017, 9:59 a.m., x.com/GiorgiaMeloni/status/827531927653646337, archived at archive.today, February 9, 2026 capture, archive.ph/wip/rUmvl.

349 “In fact, as any honest observer will acknowledge” President Meloni’s Letter to the Corriere della Sera Newspaper on Liberation Day,” Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Italian Government, April 25, 2023, www.governo.it/it/node/22468.

349 “the right-wing parties in parliament . . .” “President Meloni’s letter to the Corriere della Sera newspaper on Liberation Day,” www.governo.it/it/node/22468.

349 “Fascist leaders appeal to history to replace . . .”  Jason Stanley, How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them (New York: Random House, 2018), 21. Visit earch.worldcat.org/title/1144112665to find this book at a library.

Chapter 93: White Man’s Party

351 told four congresswomen of color Though Trump did not mention the congresswomen by name, his tweets were targeted at Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). Only Omar was born outside of the United States. Jonathan Lemire and Calvin Woodward, “Leave the US, Trump Tells Liberal Congresswomen of Color,” Associated Press (AP) News, July 14, 2019, apnews.com/article/728ada1e918a482c9e9b1f3e24937caa.

351 “go back” . . . ”came from”  Trump wrote, “So interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run. Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how it is done. These places need your help badly, you can’t leave fast enough. I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!” Donald J. Trump, Twitter, July 14, 2019, 8:27 a.m., x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1150381396994723841, archived at archive.today, September 9, 2020 capture, archive.ph/5mscZ.

351 denied that Trump’s tweets were racist  When asked by a reporter if Trump’s tweets were racist, McCarthy firmly answers, “No.” Washington Post, “McCarthy: Trump’s Tweets Were Not Racist,” YouTube, July 16, 2019, youtu.be/TjAASh7mKHU?si=38R1bcTurxjYpsu4, 0:00–0:05.

351 “We are the party of Lincoln” Washington Post, “McCarthy: Trump’s Tweets Were Not Racist,” youtu.be/TjAASh7mKHU?si=38R1bcTurxjYpsu4, 2:16–2:17.

351 “The Republican Party is the party of . . .”  Right Side Broadcasting Network, “Full Event: Donald Trump Rally in Everett, WA 8/30/16 (RSBN CAMERAS),” YouTube, August 30, 2016, www.youtube.com/live/gPfautohnMw?si=u9h9WtTAiP8NabZ7, 48:30–48:47.

351 “It is the Democratic Party that is the party of slavery, the party of Jim Crow”  Right Side Broadcasting Network, “Full Event: Donald Trump Rally in Everett, WA 8/30/16 (RSBN CAMERAS),” www.youtube.com/live/gPfautohnMw?si=u9h9WtTAiP8NabZ7, 48:50–48:57.

351 founding in 1828  “While there is no precise date for the beginning of the Democratic party, its origin can be traced to the late 1700s when Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic-Republican party organized opposition to the Federalist Party . . . Most historians agree that the Democratic party as we know it today began with Andrew Jackson’s successful 1828 presidential campaign.” CNN, “Democratic Party History,” in “1996 Democratic National Convention: Chicago,” CNN.com, accessed March 28, 2025, edition.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/conventions/chicago/facts/history/index.shtml.

351 supported or accepted slavery and its expansion  On the “popular sovereignty” policy of the Democrats, which empowered White men in territories (rather than Congress) to decide on the slavery question, see Joshua A. Lynn, Preserving the White Man’s Republic: Jacksonian Democracy, Race, and the Transformation of American Conservatism (Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 2019), 11–33. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/1065821195.

351 enacted laws . . . from remaining in enslaving states  At least six Democrat-led enslaving states—Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Louisiana, Virginia, and Arkansas—prohibited emancipated people from remaining in the state. For legislative details, see Henry W. Farnam, Chapters in the History of Social Legislation in the United States to 1860, ed. Clive Day (Union, NJ: Lawbook Exchange, 2000), 199–200; and Judith Kelleher Schafer, Becoming Free, Remaining Free: Manumission and Enslavement in New Orleans, 1846–1862 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2003), 146–148. Find Chapters in the History of Social Legislation in the United States to 1860 (search.worldcat.org/title/42476722) and Becoming Free, Remaining Free (search.worldcat.org/title/51297235) at a local library.

351 from settling in Midwestern states  John A. Logan, then a Democrat, sponsored the Illinois Black Law of 1853, which banned Black migration into Illinois. In Indiana, 95 out of 150 delegates at the 1851 convention that drafted the constitution, which banned Black migration, were Democrats. See Illinois General Assembly, General Laws of the State of Illinois, Passed by the Eighteenth General Assembly, Convened January 3, 1853 (Springfield, IL: Lanphier & Walker, 1853), archive.org/details/lawsofstateofill1853illi/page/56/mode/2up, 57–60 (Illinois law text); “27. Illinois Black Law (1853),” 100 Most Valuable Documents at the Illinois State Archives, Illinois Secretary of State, accessed September 26, 2025, https://www.ilsos.gov/departments/archives/online-exhibits/100-documents/1853-black-law.html (law summary and information on Logan); David G. Vanderstel, “1851 Indiana Constitution,” Indiana Historical Bureau, accessed September 26, 2025, www.in.gov/history/about-indiana-history-and-trivia/explore-indiana-history-by-topic/state-constitutions/the-1851-indiana-constitution-by-david-g-vanderstel/ (composition of 1851 Indiana constitutional convention);“Constitution of 1851 as originally written: Article 13—Negroes and Mulattoes,” Indiana Historical Bureau, accessed September 26, 2025, www.in.gov/history/about-indiana-history-and-trivia/explore-indiana-history-by-topic/indiana-documents-leading-to-statehood/constitution-of-1851/article-13-negroes-and-mulattoes/(text of section 13 of 1851 Indiana Constitution).

351 “I want to have nothing to do either . . . the white man’s party”  The transcript of this speech notes that this line was met with “great applause.”   Speech of Hon. Lyman Trumbull, of Illinois, at a Mass Meeting in Chicago, August 7, 1858 (Washington, D.C.: Buell & Blanchard, 1858), www.google.com/books/edition/Speech_of_Hon_Lyman_Trumball_of_Illinois/Nr0mDo_PGHQC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PP5&printsec=frontcover, 13.

351 “We are for free white men”  Speech of Hon. Lyman Trumbull, www.google.com/books/edition/Speech_of_Hon_Lyman_Trumball_of_Illinois/Nr0mDo_PGHQC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PP5&printsec=frontcover, 13.

352 helped found the Republican Party in 1854 Eric Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party Before the Civil War (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 104–106. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/726734951.

352 advocates of “free soil” dominated  Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men, 58–65. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/726734951.

352 the North’s paper of record  Adam Tuchinsky, Horace Greeley’s New-York Tribune: Civil-War Era Socialism and the Crisis of Free Labor (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009), 212. See also “New-York Tribune (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924,” Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, National Digital Newspaper Program, Library of Congress and National Endowment for the Humanities, accessed March 31, 2025, www.loc.gov/item/sn83030214/. To find Tuchinsky’s book at a library, visit search.worldcat.org/title/726824350.

352 “There are Republicans who are Abolitionists . . ."  New York Tribune, October 15, 1856, quoted in Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men, 61. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/726734951.

352 in pressing for the removal . . . from the United States James Oakes, Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861–1865 (New York. W. W. Norton & Company, 2014), 279–280. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/783162639.

352 “The North does not want . . .” Lyman Trumbull in U.S. Congress, Congressional Globe, 36th Cong., 1st sess. (December 8, 1859), www.google.com/books/edition/The_Congressional_Globe/sw525nrZdcIC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA60&printsec=frontcover, 60.

352 appropriate money for remigration Abraham Lincoln, “Address on Colonization to a Deputation of Colored Men,” August 14, 1862, in Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project, UC Santa Barbara, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/address-colonization-deputation-colored-men; and Phillip W. Magness and Sebastian N. Page, Colonization After Emancipation: Lincoln and the Movement for Black Resettlement (Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 2011), 3–4. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/793207678.

352 failed to materialize See Sydney Trent, “Abraham Lincoln’s Disastrous Effort to Get Black People to Leave the U.S.,” Washington Post, February 19, 2023, www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/02/19/abraham-lincolns-disastrous-effort-get-black-people-leave-us/.

352 wanted to expand slavery . . . the policy of “popular sovereignty”  Lynn, Preserving the White Man’s Republic, 11–33; and Laura Schulte, “PolitiFact: Did Democrats Want to Expand Slavery Pre-Civil War, While Republicans Opposed It?” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, January 9, 2024, www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/politifactwisconsin/2024/01/09/did-democrats-want-to-expand-slavery-before-the-civil-war/72107569007/. Find White Man’s Republic at a library at search.worldcat.org/title/1065821195.

352 “where it exists”  During his first debate against Douglas, held in Ottawa, Illinois, in August 1858, Lincoln declared, “I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.” Lincoln went on to directly quote this line in his first inaugural address in March 1861. Abraham Lincoln, “First Joint Debate, at Ottawa, August 21, 1858,” in Political Speeches and Debates of Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas, 1854–1861, ed. Alonzo T. Jones (Battle Creek, MI: International Tract Society, 1895), www.google.com/books/edition/Political_Speeches_and_Debates_of_Abraha/Gvc-AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PR1&printsec=frontcover, 179; and Abraham Lincoln, “First Inaugural Address of Abraham Lincoln,” March 4, 1861, The Avalon Project, Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School, avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/lincoln1.asp.

352 seceded after Lincoln’s election  For a list of the eleven states that seceded, and their dates of secession, see “War Declared: States Secede from the Union,” Kennesaw Mountain, National Battlefield Park, National Park Service, September 19, 2023, www.nps.gov/kemo/learn/historyculture/wardeclared.htm.

352 attempted . . . only to save the Union In a letter to Horace Greeley in August 1862, Lincoln wrote, “My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy Slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do about Slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save this Union.” Abraham Lincoln, “Letter in Reply to Horace Greeley on Slavery and the Union—The Restoration of the Union the Paramount Object,” August 22, 1862, in Peters and Woolley, The American Presidency Project, www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/letter-reply-horace-greeley-slavery-and-the-union-the-restoration-the-union-the-paramount.

352 only way . . . was to end slavery “On July 13 Lincoln told Secretary of State William H. Seward and Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles that he had nearly decided that an emancipation declaration was necessary in order to save the Union.” John B. Boles, Black Southerners, 1619–1869 (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 1984), 190. Find this book at a library at search.worldcat.org/title/900344791.

352 his offer . . . before 1900  In his Second Annual Message to Congress in December 1862, Lincoln proclaimed, “Our national strife springs not from our permanent part; not from the land we inhabit: not from our national homestead. There is no possible severing of this but would multiply and not mitigate evils among us.” He insisted that his scheme for “compensated emancipation” “would shorten the war, perpetuate peace, insure this increase of population, and proportionately the wealth of the country.” Abraham Lincoln, “December 1, 1862: Second Annual Message,” Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia, millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/december-1-1862-second-annual-message. Less than two months earlier, Lincoln had issued his Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, in which he warned Confederate enslaving states that if they did not surrender by January 1, 1863, “all persons held as slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” Abraham Lincoln, “Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation,” September 22, 1862, National Archives, www.archives.gov/exhibits/american_originals_iv/sections/transcript_preliminary_emancipation.html.

352 signed . . . to join the Union Army and Navy “By the end of the Civil War, roughly 179,000 black men (10% of the Union Army) served as soldiers in the U.S. Army and another 19,000 served in the Navy. Nearly 40,000 black soldiers died over the course of the war—30,000 of infection or disease . . . Black women, who could not formally join the Army, nonetheless served as nurses, spies, and scouts, the most famous being Harriet Tubman, who scouted for the 2d South Carolina Volunteers.” For a transcript of the proclamation, see Abraham Lincoln, “Emancipation Proclamation,” January 1, 1863, Milestone Documents, National Archives, www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/emancipation-proclamation. For more information on the service of Black men and women in Union forces, see “Black Soldiers in the U.S. Military During the Civil War,” National Archives, October 4, 2023, www.archives.gov/education/lessons/blacks-civil-war.  

353 pursued his remigration plans “Though the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1862 did not include reference to colonization, one hour before Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation he signed an agreement with business man Bernard Kock to settle 5,000 contrabands in Haiti. In January 1863 Lincoln instructed that negotiations be held with foreign governments holding possessions in the Caribbean and Central America and these negotiations were continued into 1864. In early January 1865 Reverend James Mitchell, who worked with Lincoln throughout his Presidency on the issue of colonization, reported that Lincoln chose to close the policy of colonization ‘for the time being’ as it risked diverting manpower from the U.S. Colored Troop recruitment. Although there is a great deal of skepticism about the accuracy of the story because of his character, Benjamin Butler did meet Lincoln on April 11, 1865 and recounted that Lincoln expressed concerns about impending racial violence against freedmen and asked Butler to investigate using Central America as a prospective refuge. Whether his emerging vision for reconstruction would have included colonization as a policy cannot be known because of his untimely death.” Phillip W. Magness, “Lincoln and Colonization,” Essential Civil War Curriculum, Virginia Center for Civil War Studies at Virginia Tech, accessed April 1, 2025, www.essentialcivilwarcurriculum.com/lincoln-and-colonization.html.

353 more than 90 percent  “In 1861 there were about 4 million blacks in the United States. Almost 90 percent of African Americans, about 3.5 million, were slaves living in fifteen southern states. Slightly more than half of the remaining 10 percent were free blacks living in the South, and the rest were free blacks living in the North.” “Civil Rights: Slavery, Emancipation, and the Civil War,” in Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619–1895: From the Colonial Period to the Age of Frederick Douglass, Vol. 1, ed. Paul Finkelman (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 277. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/1081065259.

353 providing . . . civil and voting rights See “Reconstruction and Black Political Activism,” Black Americans in Congress, 1870–2007, History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives, Office of the Historian, 2008, history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/BAIC/Historical-Essays/Fifteenth-Amendment/Reconstruction/.

353 largely looked the other way . . .  For details on the relationship between the Republicans’ abandonment of Reconstruction and the rise of Jim Crow and lynchings, see “Back to Brutality: Restoring Racial Hierarchy Through Terror and Violence” and “Lynching in America: From ‘Popular Justice’ to Racial Terror,” in Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror, 3^rd ed., accessed April 1, 2025, lynchinginamerica.eji.org/report/.

353 welcomed segregationist Democrats. . . with Harry Truman  Southern segregationists resisted the civil rights movement and largely switched to the Republican Party in time for Ronald Reagan’s presidential election in 1980. Segregationist Southern Democrats walked out of the 1948 Democratic National Convention in protest of the party’s support for civil rights. They formed the States Rights Democratic (or Dixiecrat) Party and nominated Strom Thurmond of South Carolina—who later became a Republican over his opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964—as their presidential candidate in the 1948 election. The official Dixiecrat platform declared, “We oppose and condemn the action of the Democratic Convention in sponsoring a civil rights program calling for the elimination of segregation, social equality by Federal fiat, regulations of private employment practices, voting, and local law enforcement.” By contrast, the Dixiecrats “oppose the elimination of segregation, the repeal of miscegenation statutes, the control of private employment by Federal bureaucrats called for by the misnamed civil rights program. We favor home-rule, local self-government and a minimum interference with individual rights.” States Rights Democratic Party, “Platform of the States Rights Democratic Party,” August 14, 1948, Teaching American History, teachingamericanhistory.org/document/platform-of-the-states-rights-democratic-party/. On other key events that led to the Southern political migration to the Republican party by 1980, see Ron Elving, “Dixie’s Long Journey from Democratic Stronghold to Republican Redoubt,” It’s All Politics, NPR, June 25, 2015, www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/06/25/417154906/dixies-long-journey-from-democratic-stronghold-to-republican-redoubt.

Chapter 94: Modern KKK

354 “What gets lost . . .”  Conn Carroll, “Text: Sen. Rand Paul’s speech at Howard University,” Washington Examiner, April 10, 2013, www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/beltway-confidential/1858052/text-sen-rand-pauls-speech-at-howard-university/.

354 “ look at the Dixiecrats . . .” Senator Ted Cruz, “Sen. Cruz on Fox News’ America Newsroom—Feb. 8, 2017,” YouTube, February 8, 2017, youtu.be/aU8o35GuR8w?si=QIe-_JpTfv4dowuS, 5:31–5:42.

354 compared . . . to the KKK During an interview with conservative commentator David Harris Jr., Greene said of the Black Lives Movement, “It’s basically the same tactics that the Ku Klux Klan used to use. They used to go and take to the streets with torches and their uniforms and go out there like some sort of army. They would threaten courts. They would threaten people in their towns if they didn’t behave the way they wanted them to behave.” David Harris Jr., “Special Guest Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene Joins Me to Talk About Chauvin Verdict & More!” Periscope, April 21, 2021, www.pscp.tv/w/1YqxoyglLwMGv, 6:11–6:32.

354 “. . . The Democrat Party is the party of the Ku Klux Klan” Harris Jr., “Special Guest Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene Joins Me to Talk About Chauvin Verdict & More!” www.pscp.tv/w/1YqxoyglLwMGv, 6:32–6:37.

354 “modern grand wizards of the modern KKK”  Alex Tabet and Katherine Koretski, “Vivek Ramaswamy calls Rep. Ayanna Pressley, Author Ibram Kendi Part of ‘Modern KKK,’” NBC News, August 25, 2023, video, www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/vivek-ramaswamy-calls-rep-ayanna-pressley-author-ibram-kendi-part-mode-rcna101873, 0:29–1:20. The “modern grand wizards of the modern KKK” line begins at 1:19.

354 a backdrop that read “TRUTH”  Thomas Beaumont, “Republican presidential candidate businessman Vivek Ramaswamy greets people at a campaign stop in Pella, Iowa, Friday, Aug. 25, 2023,” 2023, photograph, Associated Press Photo, dims.apnews.com/dims4/default/2454d73/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4009x2673+0+0/resize/1440x960!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2Fba%2F8c%2F7e3b4c519671fc83333776c52bcf%2Fb18b25e9b4d4487bb227fb793e961bce.

354–355 “April 25, 1945, clearly marks . . .”  “President Meloni’s Letter to the Corriere della Sera Newspaper on Liberation Day,” Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Italian Government, April 25, 2023, www.governo.it/it/node/22468.

355 “The whole white race may be submerged . . .” “Mussolini Warns on Birth Rate Drop,” New York Times, September 27, 1928, nyti.ms/4hVQPLO, 1, 9.

355 “While, for instance, the whites . . .” “Mussolini Warns on Birth Rate Drop,” nyti.ms/4hVQPLO, 9.

355 “China has 400,000,000 inhabitants” “Mussolini Warns on Birth Rate Drop,” nyti.ms/4hVQPLO, 9.

355 “alarm” . . . “sounding and all who can see . . .” “Mussolini Warns on Birth Rate Drop,” nyti.ms/4hVQPLO, 9.

355  a series . . . including barring interracial marriage and extramarital sex  Christopher Shinn, “Inside the Italian Empire: Colonial Africa, Race Wars, and the ‘Southern Question,’” in Shades of Whiteness, ed. Ewan Kirkland (Oxford, UK: Inter-Disciplinary Press, 2016), 42; and Michael A. Livingston, The Fascists and the Jews of Italy: Mussolini’s Race Laws, 1938–1943 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 67-68. View search.worldcat.org/title/1239981177 (Shades of Whiteness) and search.worldcat.org/title/823860721(The Fascists and the Jews of Italy) to find these books at a library.

355 positioned Jews and Africans as the great replacers of Italy’s “Aryan race”  Aaron Gillette, “The Origins of the ‘Manifesto of Racial Scientists,’” Journal of Modern Italian Studies 6, no. 3 (2001), www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13545710110084253, 306, 312–313.

355 Drafted . . . heavily edited by Mussolini  Gillette, “The Origins of the ‘Manifesto of Racial Scientists,’” www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13545710110084253, 306, 307–308, 313.

355 positively reviewed by handpicked  Gillette, “The Origins of the ‘Manifesto of Racial Scientists,’” www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13545710110084253, 313.

355 first appeared . . . on July 14, 1938  Gillette, “The Origins of the ‘Manifesto of Racial Scientists,’” www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13545710110084253, 305.

355 “The concept of race is purely biological” Italics in the original. “Appendix: ‘Manifesto of Racial Scientists,’” 1938, in Gillette, “The Origins of the ‘Manifesto of Racial Scientists,’” www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13545710110084253, 318.

355 “the Jews do not belong to the Italian race” Italics in the original. “Appendix: ‘Manifesto of Racial Scientists,’” www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13545710110084253, 319.

355 “The population of Italy today. . .” Italics in the original. “Appendix: ‘Manifesto of Racial Scientists,’” www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13545710110084253, 319.

356 “If the extreme leftists manage . . .” Branko Grims quoted in Álvaro Peñas, “‘Without Christian Roots Europe Cannot Exist’: An Interview with Branko Grims,” European Conservative, August 23, 2023, europeanconservative.com/articles/interviews/without-christian-roots-europe-cannot-exist-an-interview-with-branko-grims/.

356 “The racial composition of today . . .”  Italics in the original.    “Appendix: ‘Manifesto of Racial Scientists,’” www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13545710110084253, 319.

356 “The population stock of France . . .” Renaud Camus, You Will Not Replace Us!, (Plieux, France: Renaud Camus, 2018), 22–23. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/1091051149.

356 “The purely European character of the Italians . . .”  “Appendix: ‘Manifesto of Racial Scientists,’” www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13545710110084253, 320.

356 “We are willing to mix with one another . . .” “Speech by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at the 31st Bálványos Summer Free University and Student Camp,” Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister, July 23, 2022, 2015-2022.miniszterelnok.hu/speech-by-prime-minister-viktor-orban-at-the-31st-balvanyos-summer-free-university-and-student-camp/.

356 “Islamic civilisation”  “Speech by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at the 31st Bálványos Summer Free University and Student Camp,” 2015-2022.miniszterelnok.hu/speech-by-prime-minister-viktor-orban-at-the-31st-balvanyos-summer-free-university-and-student-camp/.

356 “constantly moving towards Europe”  “Speech by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at the 31st Bálványos Summer Free University and Student Camp,” 2015-2022.miniszterelnok.hu/speech-by-prime-minister-viktor-orban-at-the-31st-balvanyos-summer-free-university-and-student-camp/.

356 “occupying and flooding the West”  “Speech by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at the 31st Bálványos Summer Free University and Student Camp,” 2015-2022.miniszterelnok.hu/speech-by-prime-minister-viktor-orban-at-the-31st-balvanyos-summer-free-university-and-student-camp/.

356 “It is time for the Italians to proclaim . . .”  Formatting in the original. “Appendix: ‘Manifesto of Racial Scientists,’” www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13545710110084253, 319.

356 “the doctrine of people who . . .”  Camus, You Will Not Replace Us!, 83–84. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/1091051149.

356 secretly recorded . . . the youth division of Brothers of Italy Angelo Amante, “Rome’s Jews Outraged After Videos Show Antisemitism in Meloni’s Youth Movement,” Reuters, June 27, 2024, www.reuters.com/world/europe/romes-jews-outraged-after-videos-show-antisemitism-melonis-youth-movement-2024-06-27/.

356–357 identified as fascists. They berated . . . with antisemitic comments  Amante, “Rome’s Jews Outraged After Videos Show Antisemitism in Meloni’s Youth Movement,” www.reuters.com/world/europe/romes-jews-outraged-after-videos-show-antisemitism-melonis-youth-movement-2024-06-27/.

356–357 yelled the Nazi slogan “Sieg Heil!”  Amante, “Rome’s Jews Outraged After Videos Show Antisemitism in Meloni’s Youth Movement,” www.reuters.com/world/europe/romes-jews-outraged-after-videos-show-antisemitism-melonis-youth-movement-2024-06-27/.

357 “angry and saddened” Giorgia Meloni, letter to Brothers of Italy, July 2, 2024, quoted in Crispian Balmer, “Italy’s Meloni Tells Her Party There Is No Rom for Fascism in Its Ranks,” Reuters, July 2, 2024, www.reuters.com/world/europe/italys-meloni-tells-her-party-there-is-no-room-fascism-its-ranks-2024-07-02/.

357 “no room in Brothers of Italy for racism or antisemitism”  Meloni, letter to Brothers of Italy, www.reuters.com/world/europe/italys-meloni-tells-her-party-there-is-no-room-fascism-its-ranks-2024-07-02/.

357 “extra-European race” . . . “a civilization different from . . .”  “Appendix: ‘Manifesto of Racial Scientists,’” www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13545710110084253, 320.

357 “uncontrolled immigration”  Giorgia Meloni, Twitter, February 3, 2017, 9:59 a.m., x.com/GiorgiaMeloni/status/827531927653646337, archived at archive.today, February 9, 2026 capture, archive.ph/wip/rUmvl.

357 “ethnic substitution”  Mediatime Network, "Giorgia Meloni Against Ethnic Substitution," youtu.be/4EzNi5PGbRA?si=V5pgowh_wJW3sWQ1, 1:15–1:18; and Vista Agenzia Televisiva Nazionale, “Ethnic Substitution, What Giorgia Meloni Said 6 Years Ago," April 24, 2023, youtu.be/EgVdu6ZYgWY?si=Xzgueb2O8DjmzpJg, 0:12–0:15.