You're right, the subject of the book is not the "formation"; it's possible
that I had it mixed up with Elizabeth Wiskemann's  _Fascism in Italy: Its
Development and Influence_, which is another sober and intellegent look on
the general subject.
 
However, Hamilton does devote a good portion of his book detailing the
political, philosophical climate of Italy, going back to the mid 19th
century to discuss Italian Nationalist movement, the Dante Aligieri Society.
I thought he explained the factionalization of the communists, socialists,
Marinetti's futurist philosophy, Mussolini's efforts, as well as
D'annunzio's and Giovanni Gentile's efforts, with sufficient clarity for
someone to get an idea of why fascism occured the way it did and for what.
 
 
 
At 01:20 AM 11/21/99 -0800, you wrote:
>Two annotations to the previous.
>
>It's inaccurate to call Hamilton's book "excellant on
>the subjectof the formation of It. fascism" since that
>ain't its subject. The subject is what i stated above.
>Also you should note the publication date: 1971.
>
>The historiography of fascism has acquired new
>directions in the intervening three decades. For a
>recent view, see Emilio Gentile (one of the most
>esteemed Italian historians of Italian culture under
>Fascism), <The Sacralization of Politics in Fascist
>Italy>, 1996.
>
>--- Everett Lee Lady <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> >Date:  Sat, 20 Nov 1999 07:35:00 -1000
>> >From:  David Centrone <[log in to unmask]>
>> >Subject:      Re: Integer vitae scelerisque purum
>> >
>> >An excellant book on the subject of the formation
>> of Italian fascism is
>> >Alastair Hamilton's:. _The Appeal of Fascism_.
>> After reading it, I'm not so
>> >sure that I would characterize it as the "working
>> class. . . at war with the
>> >bourgeoisie"; many of the most pronounced
>> supporters (against the violence
>> >of the communist, syndicalist, maximalists) were
>> the people who had actually
>> >made money during the war (I).  This group included
>> Italian Jewish people as
>> >well.
>>
>> Thanks for the reference.  I, for one, will
>> certainly be interested in
>> looking at this.
>>
>> But since our interest in this list is with Pound,
>> and with what we
>> really mean when we say, "Pound was a Fascist," and
>> with the question of
>> whether Pound's poetry and literary criticism can be
>> seen as a
>> justification for Fascism in the same way that
>> Nietzsche and Heidegger's
>> writings can be read as a justification for
>> Naziism....   Since this is
>> our concern, the relevant question is:  What was
>> *Pound's* understanding
>> of Fascism?
>>
>> And strangely enough, considering how quick we are
>> to label Pound a
>> Fascist, it seems rather difficult to find much of
>> an answer to this in
>> Pound's writings.  If one reads JEFFERSON AND/OR
>> MUSSOLINI, one sees that
>> he admired Mussolini and admired the spirit of Italy
>> under Mussolini.
>> He doesn't, however, say anything about the
>> repressive aspects of that
>> Mussolini's government except where he denies that
>> some of them exist.
>>
>> From the conversations I heard at St. Elizabeth's, I
>> remember only that
>> he liked the idea of the Corporate State, i.e. that
>> members of the
>> legislature would represent the various business and
>> labor interests
>> instead of representing geographical regions.  (To
>> some extent, our own
>> government functions according to this same
>> structure, inasmuch as a lot
>> of the real legislative debate is carried on by
>> lobbyists more than by
>> the actual Senators and Congressmen, who could
>> probably not function
>> without the information supplied by lobbyists.)
>>
>> Pound was typical of many people in that his
>> feelings about the
>> political figures he liked were based more on their
>> words than their
>> actual policies.  He liked the fact that Mussolini
>> (and also Hitler)
>> denounced munitions manufacturers, bankers, and
>> financiers in their
>> speeches.  He didn't seem to have much understanding
>> of the fact that
>> these speeches were designed merely to appeal to
>> people like himself
>> (many many people at that time shared Pound's
>> sentiments) and were not
>> a reflection of actual policy.
>>
>> I will be very interested in seeing what's in
>> Alastair Hamilton's book,
>> but I suspect that the level of discussion there is
>> far more
>> sophisticated than Pound's own understanding of
>> Fascism.
>>
>> -- Lee Lady <Http://www2.Hawaii.Edu/~lady>
>>
>
>
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David Centrone
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