Italo Balbo: A Fascist Life

By Claudio G. Segrè

Book Overview

Pioneering aviator, blackshirt leader, colonial governor, confidante and heir-apparent to Benito Mussolini, the dashing and charismatic Italo Balbo exemplified the ideals of Fascist Italy during the 1920s and 30s. He earned national notoriety after World War I as a ruthless squadrista whose blackshirt forces crushed socialist and trade union organizations. As Minister of Aviation from 1926 to 1933, he led two internationally heralded mass trans-Atlantic flights. When his aerial armada reached the U. S., Chicago honored him with a Balbo Avenue, New York staged a ticker-tape parade, and President Roosevelt invited him to lunch. As colonial governor from 1933 to 1940, Balbo transformed Libya from backward colony to model Italian province. To many, Italo Balbo seemed to embody a noble vision of Fascism and the New Italy.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520071999
• ISBN13: 9780520071995
• Release Date: August 1990
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 482 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

detailed and informative

intimate and intresting look at this italian hero fascism is not what i thought it was and it's best example is italo balbo but you also get to see that fascism would not have had it's popularity without this patriotic man which brings up all kinds of what if questions take a look i think you'll like it