The thesis engages with recent debates surrounding the relationship between culture, ideology and politics in Venice under Italian Fascism. It aims to establish if the Fascist project for the 'nationalization of the masses' through culture was successfully promoted in Venice, or whether local economic interests were afforded a higher priority by the town authorities. It argues that local elites were not primarily concerned with the endorsement of Fascist ideology through cultural politics but considered exhibitions, plays, concerts and festivals to be the route to boosting economic growth through the development of the tourist industry. The thesis examines the ways in which the Venetian municipality was able to work with the Fascist regime, co-operating with national political directives provided these did not contradict the primary objective of restructuring and reviving the Venetian economy. Cultural policies in Venice were thus less a vehicle for Fascist ideology than a pragmatic means of injecting new life into the flagging post-war economy through the development of new forms of 'cultural tourism'. Festivals, exhibitions and traditional events were placed at the service not of the Fascist programme of mass cultural mobilisation, but of local business and political elites whose interests ultimately depended upon the revitalization of commercial tourism and the economic and social rejuvenation of the Veneto region. The familiar image of a 'totalitarian' state penetrating deep into all aspects of society is in need of serious qualification and a more realistic interpretation of Fascism in Venice must take account of the complex and sometimes ambiguous relationship between the national interest, as constructed by ideologically-driven Fascist organs and agencies, and the requirements of institutions and elites at the local level.

New studies that focus on the air bombardment of civilians in Italy during the Second World War regard the Italian home front as a privileged ‘observation post’ from which to study the relationship between Fascism and society during the years of the collapse of Mussolini’s regime. Yet the role of propaganda, on the specific aspect of people vulnerability to total war, in influencing that relationship, has received little attention. The main aim of this work is to reconstruct the narrative of bombing and of civilians’ life in Italy during the first phase of the war (1940-1943) as it emerges from reports, stories and works of invention in the Italian media. These have been compared with both the public reaction and the regime propaganda that had constructed some of the most powerful ideological tenets of the Italian Fascism during the 1930s, first of all the myth of air power and the creation of a ‘new man’. Investigating specific sections of the home front and situating the breakup of the Italian morale at the time of the first serious setbacks of Mussolini’s armies at the end of 1940, this research focuses in particular on the effectiveness - or otherwise - of government policies in steering the media and cultural activities that reflected life in wartime Italy. Drawing mostly on primary sources such as government papers, personal memoirs, censored letters and confidential reports, the study argues that propaganda’s failure to continue to bolster Fascist myths was due both to the catastrophic impact of war on civilians’ life and to institutional and political flaws. Uneven and inconsistent directives from propaganda controllers reflected similar attitudes and policy failures within the regime as a whole, whereas the enemy proved increasingly more effective in conveying the message that there was no aggression against Italy and that Italians were paying a high price for Mussolini’s mistakes.

In recent years there has been a revival in the study of the civilian experience of war. Compared to other belligerent countries such as Germany, Italy’s experience of Allied bombing and occupation has been neglected. Such an absence from the historiography is unjustifiable; Italians were bombed intensely and endured a long occupation and reconstruction by the Allies. This led to the development of complex relationships between the two groups. This study hopes to contribute to the revival of interest in the social history of the civilian in war, by focusing on the region of Puglia in southern Italy from 1943 to 1946. The south was the first area to experience direct contact with the Allies with the implementation of operation Husky (the invasion of Sicily) in July 1943. Once the Allies began their occupation of the south, they were unable to alter their attitude toward the Italian civilians despite the fact that Italy became from 8 September a co-belligerent. The study of the Allied occupation at a social level can demonstrate how the perception of the occupier and the occupied was constantly in flux, changing and adapting itself to different situations. By focussing on public health, protest, crime, bombing and reconstruction, this study reconstructs the daily life of Allied servicemen and Italian civilians and demonstrates the multifaceted society that developed during the occupation.

The thesis focuses on the response of Venice province population to the rise of Fascism and to the regime’s attempts to fascistise Italian society. This thesis is developed around analysis of popular opinion and the way in which limited local consensus for the Fascist regime contributed to Fascism’s downfall. The thesis begins with a discussion of the Party, and to provides a clear picture of how ‘national’ and ‘local’ interacted alongside the establishment of the structures. The focus then shifts to the working class and the way it came to terms with the Fascist regime. The third chapter deals with two groups that provided a particular challenge to the regime’s totalitarian aspirations: Venetian Youth and the Catholic Church with its attempts to resist and to jeopardize the regime’s intention to monopolise every aspect of social life. The fourth chapter is a case-study of the Venetian Jewish community, of how the Race Laws affected the life of Venetian Jews. Lastly, the fifth chapter, by way of a conclusion, studies the ‘Fascist War’ (1940-1943) as a microcosm that explains for the local Venetian context how the lack of popular consent enhanced the regime’s inability to survive war-induced challenges.

La thèse reconstitue les activités et les ramifications transnationales du réseau antisémite, contre-révolutionnaire et anticommuniste animé par Mgr Umberto Benigni de 1917 à 1934 (« Entente romaine de défense sociale »). Mgr Benigni est une figure majeure de l’intransigeantisme catholique, soldat de Pie X dans la lutte acharnée contre le modernisme ; membre de la Curie et professeur renommé, Benigni marque la formation de plusieurs dirigeants de l’Eglise, notamment Eugenio Pacelli, futur Pie XII. Mais Benigni est également un nom récurrent dans l’historiographie sur l’antisémitisme italien en raison de la longue durée de sa carrière de publiciste antisémite ; avant les lois raciales fascistes de 1938, il incarne l’une des principales traditions d’antisémitisme national. À partir des archives privées de Mgr Benigni, des archives du Vatican et des archives du fascisme italien, cette thèse met à jour les activités du prélat romain en relation avec ses plus proches collaborateurs italiens (la revue Fede e Ragione) et français (Mgr Jouin et l’abbé Boulin, autour de la Revue internationale des sociétés secrètes, Le Bloc catholique de Toulouse). Par cet exemple de réseau, c'est une certaine cartographie de l'antisémitisme, de l'engagement intransigeant et de l'extrême droite, qui peut être reconstruite. Les ramifications internationales du réseau sont multiples impliquant différents groupes antisémites britanniques, américains, allemands, suisses ou encore les activistes russes blancs en exil. Une attention particulière est portée aux connexions politiques des catholiques intransigeants autour de Mgr Benigni, notamment avec l’Action française et le fascisme italien. / My research contributes to the history of interwar antisemitism by examining the interplay between two aspects usually neglected in the scholarship on antisemitism: the involvement of Catholic activists and the transnational dimension of antisemitic propaganda. By studying the Catholic network led by the Roman prelate Umberto Benigni and drawing upon the recently opened Vatican archives (Pius XI’s pontificate and Holy Office archives), my work revisits antisemitism through the lens of transnational methods. Challenging the traditional distinction between religious anti-Judaism and modern antisemitism, the overarching question of my research is how the transnational diffusion of antisemitic propaganda played a key role in the reshaping and renewal of Catholic hostility toward Jews during the interwar period. Focusing on a specific network led by Italian and French clerics with global right-wing connections, my dissertation uncovers that antisemitism was the common ground that gathered divergent tendencies as heterogeneous as French Catholics, Italian Fascists, White Russian émigrés, and German National Socialists. As a case study, Msgr Umberto Benigni’s network demonstrates Catholic antisemitism’s transnational connections and permeability with political and racial prejudices. Going beyond the Nazi-centric debate on antisemitism, my research draws upon the recent development of Holocaust studies related to the Italian and Vatican contexts, and examines an alternative model of Catholic Latin antisemitism. My dissertation thus exposes Catholic networks as one of the main vectors and driving forces of antisemitism’s transnational spread during the interwar era.

No description available.

Peu connu aujourd’hui en France en dehors des cercles orientalistes, le nom de Giuseppe Tucci est en revanche en Italie toujours associé à l’Orient. Sa figure apparaît ainsi comme celle d'un médiateur entre l’Italie et l’Orient, objet de définitions concurrentes. Agent de la politique extérieure italienne en Inde, organisateur des séjours en Italie des nationalistes indiens, mis en scène par le régime fasciste, intellectuel instrumentalisé par le fascisme de Mussolini, théoricien reprenant des idées conformes à celles des intellectuels fascistes ? La question est de savoir dans quelle mesure Tucci s’est rallié au régime, dans quelle mesure il l’a soutenu. L’orientalisme tourné vers l’Inde a en outre été le terrain d’instrumentalisations particulières, liées aux théories « racistes ». Une bonne part de ce courant entretient avec l’antisémitisme nazi et fasciste des liens complexes. L’approche historique de l’itinéraire de Tucci ne se limite pas à ses actions au service du régime, telles que l’organisation du voyage de Gandhi, elle implique une analyse des textes qui font allusion aux questions raciales. La question de la quête de l’origine est bien présente dans sa démarche de voyageur et de savant. L’intérêt précoce pour les langues anciennes comme l’hébreu et le sanscrit confirme le caractère central de cette quête dans la démarche de Tucci. Fut-il porteur des théories racistes cherchant dans la linguistique des arguments opposant les peuples « aryens » aux peuples « sémitiques » ? A cet égard, il importe d’étudier précisément ce qui peut rapprocher et différencier Tucci de Julius Evola (1898-1974), en se fondant sur leurs écrits respectifs et sur leurs prises de position publiques et privées. / Hardly known today in France except among Orientalist circles, Giuseppe Tucci is in Italy associated with the Orient. He still appears as a mediator between East and West. Indeed, as an actor of Italian Foreign Policy in India, he organized travels to Italy for leading nationalists Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi, in propagandist action in favor of Fascist Italy. Was he really a supporter of the Regime ? Was he only motivated by opportunistic reasons ? As a matter of fact, Indian Orientalism has been linked to racial theories that display complex links with Nazi and Fascist Anti-Semitism. An historical approach of Giuseppe Tucci’s life does not only deal with political actions for the regime, it implies to some extent an analysis of writings linked to “Race” as a topic of investigation. The Quest for the Origin was to be seen in his travels and in his scholarly approach of the East which shows his interest for old languages such as Hebrew and Sanskrit. Was he in favor of Race Theories seeking in linguistics, arguments opposing “Aryans" against "Semitic" people ? Did he share any common points with esoteric philosopher Julius Evola (1898-1974) ?