In Italy, during the 1970s, there emerged a veritable cottage industry of books and articles claiming that Mussolini not only made the trains run on time but also made Italy work well. Worse than posters or T-shirts are the works by various writers bent on “explaining” Hitler, or “reevaluating” Franco, or in other ways sanitizing fascist history. And, you know, maybe we need someone like Mussolini in this country.” His comment was a reminder that fascism survives as something more than a historical curiosity. When I entered the shop and asked the clerk why such items were being offered, he replied, “Well, some people like them. WHILE WALKING THROUGH NEW YORK’S LITTLE ITALY, I passed a novelty shop that displayed posters and T-shirts of Benito Mussolini giving the fascist salute. Excerpted from Chapter 1 of Blackshirts and Reds, First Published at Cyrano’s Journal, for fair use only
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