The Culture of Consent: Mass Organisation of Leisure in Fascist Italy

By Victoria de Grazia

Book Overview

The efforts of fascism to form a 'culture of consent, ' or shape depoliticized activities, in Italy between the world wars, make a unique portrait of fascist political tactics. Professor de Grazia focuses on the dopolavoro or fascist leisure-time organization, the largest of the regime's mass institutions. She traces its gradual rise in importance for the consolidation of fascist rule; its spread in the form of thousands of local clubs into every domain of urban and rural life; and its overwhelming impact on the distribution, consumption, and character of all kinds of recreational pursuits - from sports and adult education to movies, traveling theaters, radio, and tourism. The author shows how fascism was able, between 1926 and 1939, to build a new definition of the public sphere. Recasting the public sphere entailed dispensing with traditional class and politically defined modes of organizing those social roles and desires existing outside the workplace.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521526914
• ISBN13: 9780521526913
• Release Date: July 2002
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 324 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.0"