Settling Accounts

Retribution, Emotion and Memory during the Fall of Mussolini

Bibliographic Data

ID12547871
AuthorsJoshua Arthurs (West Virginia University, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume20
Issue5
Pages617-639
Publication date2015-10-20
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Modern Italian Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1354-571X • E-ISSN: 1469-9583
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1354571x.2015.1096517
OpenAlexW2254613011
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited43

The fall of Mussolini on 25 July 1943, and the concomitant collapse of the Fascist regime, have long been recognized as a pivotal moment in the Second World War and, indeed, contemporary Italian history. To date, however, these events have been viewed almost exclusively ‘from above’, in terms of elite politics, international diplomacy, and military strategy. Drawing on the analytical frameworks of Alltagsgeschichte (‘everyday history’), the present contribution examines the experiences, reactions and behaviors of ordinary Italians during the fall of Fascism. In particular, it explores incidents of retributive and symbolic violence, political denunciation, and popular demonstration, in order to understand how individuals and communities expressed emotions and memories, negotiated relationships, and sought to redress grievances and antipathies developed over more than twenty years of ‘totalitarian’ dictatorship

Economic Justice · Economics · Neoclassical economics · Retributive justice · Settling · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · Engineering · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration