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PALGRAVE STUDIES IN POLITICAL HISTORY
Italian Fascism
and Spanish
Falangism
in Comparison
Constructing the Nation
Giorgia Priorelli
Palgrave Studies in Political History
Series Editors
Henk te Velde
Leiden University
Leiden, The Netherlands
Maartje Janse
Leiden University
Leiden, The Netherlands
Hagen Schulz-Forberg
Aarhus University
Aarhus, Denmark
The contested nature of legitimacy lies at the heart of modern politics.
A continuous tension can be found between the public, demanding to
be properly represented, and their representatives, who have their own
responsibilities along with their own rules and culture. Political history
needs to address this contestation by looking at politics as a broad and
yet entangled field rather than as something confined to institutions
and politicians only. As political history thus widens into a more inte-
grated study of politics in general, historians are investigating democ-
racy, ideology, civil society, the welfare state, the diverse expressions of
opposition, and many other key elements of modern political legitimacy
from fresh perspectives. Parliamentary history has begun to study the
way rhetoric, culture and media shape representation, while a new social
history of politics is uncovering the strategies of popular meetings and
political organizations to influence the political system.
Palgrave Studies in Political History analyzes the changing forms and
functions of political institutions, movements and actors, as well as the
normative orders within which they navigate. Its ambition is to publish
monographs, edited volumes and Pivots exploring both political institu-
tions and political life at large, and the interaction between the two. The
premise of the series is that the two mutually define each other on local,
national, transnational, and even global levels.
Italian Fascism
and Spanish Falangism
in Comparison
Constructing the Nation
Giorgia Priorelli
LUISS Guido Carli
Rome, Italy
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2020
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights
of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc.
in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such
names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for
general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and informa-
tion in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither
the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with
respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been
made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps
and institutional affiliations.
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
To my parents
Acknowledgements
This book is the result of three stimulating and intense years of doctoral
research at LUISS Guido Carli in Rome. It would not have been possible
without the support of my supervisor, Prof. Giovanni Orsina, who
believed in me and my research. His dedication and intellectual honesty
inspired me, and his advice continues to guide me in my academic career.
My gratitude also goes to my co-supervisor, Prof. Loreto Di Nucci, who
made me fall in love with contemporary history when I was an under-
graduate student and followed the development of my Ph.D. thesis step
by step. At certain stages, I sought suggestions from a number of other
scholars. In this regard, I am indebted to Prof. Ismael Saz who was my
mentor during fieldwork in Spain. Sincere thanks also go to Prof. Luca La
Rovere, Prof. Zira Box, Dr. Matthew Kerry and Dr. Claudia Mantovani
for the time they devoted to reading my work and for their constructive
feedback.
My research could not have happened without the librarians and
archivists who spared me their time and shared their knowledge. Thanks
to the staff of the Archivio Centrale dello Stato in Rome, the Biblioteca
Nazionale Centrale in Rome, the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale in
Florence, the Library of LUISS Guido Carli, and the Library of the
European Univesity Institute. I wish to express my appreciation also to
the staff of the Biblioteca Nacional de España, the Hemeroteca Municipal
vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
1 Introduction 1
ix
x CONTENTS
Conclusions 199
Bibliography 205
Index 235
About the Author
xi
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
The myth of the nation has permeated all aspects of Fascism from the
beginning: culture and ideology, the concept of the individual and of
masses, relations between state and society, domestic policy and foreign
policy, the sense of tradition and attitude towards the future.1
implies that it is not only possible but also useful in heuristic terms to
resort to the idea of the nation in order to compare different fascist expe-
riences.50 Therefore, this work employs the ideological construction of
the nation as the ‘property of comparison’.51 The idea of the nation
will represent the yardstick for establishing affinities and dissimilarities
between the objects to be compared or the ‘comparative units’, which
in this case are the Italian Fascist and the Spanish Falangist political-
ideological components of the regimes of Benito Mussolini and Francisco
Franco respectively.52
Three preliminary remarks will guide the examination. First, this study
deliberately does not intend to compare the Italian and Spanish dicta-
torships. This choice rests on the conviction that the intrinsic differences
existing between them—given the authentic fascist nature of the former
but not of the latter—would have compromised the homogeneity of the
comparison and the validity of the research results. This volume assumes
as particularly persuasive the interpretation of Ismael Saz, who defines
Francoism as a ‘fascistised dictatorship’.53 He emphasises the real fascist
project within the Generalísimo’s authoritarian compromise and the
complex political and ideological relations among its several components.
In so doing, Saz distances himself from the two classical interpretations
of Francoism that prevailed in the academic debate until the early 1990s.
The first is attributable to the sociologist Juan J. Linz, who describes
Francoism as an ‘authoritarian regime of limited pluralism’.54 The second
is ascribable to Marxist historiography, which saw Francoism as a genuine
fascist dictatorship.55 In this last regard, Saz argues that for a long time
there has been confusion between the Caudillo’s regime—mistakenly
considered the Spanish manifestation of fascism—and the real Spanish
fascist movement. Such was the Falange Española de las Juntas de Ofen-
siva Nacional Sindicalista (Spanish Phalanx of the Councils of National
Syndicalist Offensive or FE de las JONS), resulting from the merger of
the Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista and the Falange Española
in February 1934. Thus, the question of the presence of fascism in Spain
was often reduced to the problem of the dictatorship, ignoring the fact
that ‘the ideology of the Spanish fascist movement was essentially exactly
this: a wholly modern and secular fascist ideology’.56
Whereas the comparison of the regimes of the Duce and the Gener-
alísimo can be deceptive, the fascist political-ideological component—tied
to the PNF and the FE de las JONS respectively—can be productively
compared. This study will investigate fascist political cultures in Italy
1 INTRODUCTION 9
and Spain. The concept of ‘political culture’ will be used here in Jean-
François Sirinelli’s meaning as ‘the set of representations linking a human
group in the political field’ in a ‘shared vision of the world, a common
reading of the past, and a projection into a future to be lived together’.57
This work will thus fill a historiographical gap, considering the existence
of numerous comparative research works on extreme right dictatorships
in the Old Continent in the interwar years, but a substantial lack of
comparative analysis of full-blown fascisms in southern Europe.58
The second preliminary remark concerns the outcomes of fascism in
the two countries, whose diversity does not prejudice this analysis. It is
known that fascism failed to become a regime in Spain, unlike in Italy.
The Falange consistently remained only one of the constituent parts of
Francoism, and its efforts to imprint a totalitarian turn on the dictatorship
ultimately fell through. The Caudillo did not even contemplate that his
role as supreme leader could be questioned, or that one of the political
components of his government could prevail over the others. Therefore,
whenever Spanish fascism strengthened its political presence within the
country, he intervened to scale down its aspirations and put it back in its
place.
The Generalísimo’s strategy began to be evident in April 1937, when
Franco imposed the fusion of the FE de las JONS with the Comunión
Tradicionalista to curb the increasing power of the Falange during the
Civil War. For the same purpose, he forced some radical camisas azules
(or Blueshirts, as the Falangists were also called) out of his executive
branch on two occasions. The first was the crisis of spring 1941 as a
consequence of the failed attempt of some Falangist hardliners to obtain
a more significant role and hasten the fascistisation of the regime. The
dictator apparently assumed an accommodating position towards this
request. In fact, he ended up increasing the importance of the military
component within his government and replacing the most intransigent
Falangist ministers with more moderate party figures who were prepared
to compromise. The second occasion was provided by the ‘Begoña acci-
dent’ of August 1942, during commemorations for the Carlist fallen in
the Civil War held at the Basilica de Nuestra Señora de Begoña in Bilbao.
Clashes between Carlists and Falangists occurred, degenerating when a
Blueshirt launched two hand grenades in the direction of the Minister of
the Army, General José Enrique Varela, who was attending the memo-
rial ceremony. The General remained unharmed, but two people were
injured. The attempts of some Falangist ministers to downplay the matter
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not altogether a matter to despise. In many respects at least, so decided John
Beacham, he would be happier for discovering some particulars of Honor’s
parentage. He was aware that his mother did occasionally (John little
guessed how often) flout his little wife contemptuously, and talk “at her” in
the way that women have the skill to do when aggravation is their aim and
object. The romance attendant on mystery goes for nothing with women of
Mrs. Beacham’s age and stamp; whilst a something nearly akin to disgrace
is inseparable in their minds from a birth which is neither recorded in the
parish register nor made honourable mention of in the flyleaf of the family
Bible. But gladly as John would have listened to any hints calculated to
throw a light on his wife’s antecedents, John Beacham yet shrunk with very
natural repugnance from betraying, in Colonel Norcott’s presence, any
marked interest in the subject. To disguise that interest was, however, a task
far beyond his very feeble powers of dissimulation; nevertheless, the
would-be diplomatist considered himself not wholly devoid of what he, in
his simplicity, would have called “gumption,” when he responded after the
following fashion to the fast London gentleman who had volunteered to
address him on the sacred subject of his wife:
“You’ve asked me questions, sir, which I consider that no man, unless
under very particular circumstarnces, has a right to put to another. Whether
there are or are not those circumstarnces remains to be shown; but if there
are not, all I can say is that you had better by a good deal have kept your
tongue quiet in your head, instead of speaking of what didn’t in any way
concern you.”
The effect of this exordium was not precisely what John either expected
or intended, for the Colonel, making a movement as though about to turn on
his heel, said carelessly,
“O, if you take it in that way, I’ve no more to say. If you choose to
answer my questions, I may, perhaps, be induced to do you a good turn. You
are a man I should like to oblige, but you know as well as other people,
Beacham, that one gets riled, disgusted in short, by being spoken to in that
tone.”
John, who was good-nature itself, and very ready to believe himself in
the wrong, was a little moved by Colonel Norcott’s half-reproachful tone.
After all the man might mean well, improbable as it seemed; anyway, and
for Honor’s sake, it might be as well to listen to what he had to say. He
reopened negotiations, therefore, with an apology:
“I beg your pardon, Colonel Norcott,” he said; “it was not my intention
to offend. As for my wife’s relations, she hasn’t many that I know of, any
more than I have myself; but”—and here he remembered certain expressed
longings on the part of Honor to learn something of her dead parents, which
prompted him to add—“but I don’t say that I wouldn’t—more for her sake
than my own—like to gather some particulars about her friends. She’s an
orphan, that we know, but—”
“But supposing she wasn’t an orphan,” put in Norcott, looking his
auditor fixedly in the face; “supposing she had a father alive; and supposing
that her father was a gentleman—a man who—Well, come now, I’ll tell you
the story in a few words, and you may make what you can of it. Some
eighteen or nineteen years ago—gad, how time flies!—a young fellow with
eyes in his head, and a heart, as the poets say, in his ‘buzzom,’ was
quartered for his sins in a country town in that blessed country Ireland.
There was nothing earthly for him to do; no society, or anything of the kind.
As for hunting, that wasn’t to be had for love or money; and, to make
matters worse, there was rain, rain—rain from morning till night. Now I
leave it to you, as a sensible man, to say what, under heaven, in such a case
was to be done, and whether it isn’t your opinion that, all things considered,
it wasn’t a lucky thing for the poor young fellow when he contrived to fall
in love?”
John Beacham, feeling called on to make some reply, muttered
something to the effect that, being placed in so unfortunate a position, it
was perhaps just as well that the gentleman in question should have lighted
on his legs in so providential a manner. Whereupon Colonel Fred,
apparently satisfied with the rejoinder, continued swimmingly the thread of
his discourse:
“The girl he got spoony on was devilish handsome; fair, with large blue
eyes; the kind of beauty you hear about a good deal oftener in an Irish
‘countryman’s’ house than you have the good fortune to see. She’d a grand
figure too, and, if she had ever worn stays, which of course she hadn’t—
they never do in those diggings—Miss Winifred Moriarty would have been
something worth looking at, by Jove!”
“And that was Honor’s mother?” John said, very sadly, and as though
talking to himself; for already over his young wife’s birth there seemed to
fall the shadow of a great shame, and the proud lowly-born man—prouder
than many of the exalted ones of the earth, who too often take such matters
as affairs of course—shrunk away, as does a wounded man from the sharp
touch of the surgeon’s probe.
“Yes, that was Honor’s mother, and—well, man, haven’t you begun to
guess? I think you’re rather slow—the girl that Fred Norcott—meaning
me,” he added airily—“was more awfully spoony on than he was on any
woman in his life.”
CHAPTER VI.