Italy Reborn: From Fascism to Democracy

Between 1943, when Mussolini was deposed, and 1954, when Alcide De Gasperi, the Christian Democrat who first became premier in December 1945, died, Italy constructed a democratic miracle. Rather than collapse into civil war, the country agreed on a democratic constitution. They took steps toward modernization and created one of the most intellectually vital societies in the world. Italy transformed, in only a decade, from a divided country reeling from Fascism into a modern Western democracy.

Mark Gilbert charts the descent of Italy into Fascism, the scale of the wartime disaster, and the Italian resistance to Nazi occupation, all leading to the establishment of the Republic in 1946. Democracy in Italy brought improved social welfare, land reform, universal education, and fledgling rights for women in a country still grounded in Catholicism. Amid democratic progress, though, political factions persisted throughout the twentieth century, and their aftereffects are still visible today, highlighting the fragility inherent to democratic governments in Europe and beyond.