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In 1914, by almost every index, Italy was the least of the great powers. Nor, despite huffing and puffing about imperial conquest and racial prowess, would that ranking be much altered during the Fascist years.

— R.J.B. Bosworth Mussolini’s Italy: Life Under the Fascist Dictatorship, 1915-1945 (2005)

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More quotes by R.J.B. Bosworth

Mussolini exhibited a cynical skill at rewarding his enemies and rebuking his friends.

Mussolini’s Italy: Life Under the Fascist Dictatorship, 1915-1945 (2005)

Whatever else he was, Mussolini was no Hitler impelled by a credo to act in one way and one way only.

Mussolini (2002)

In 1919 a nationalist general concluded bitterly that, when confronted by the ‘test of war’, Italy had demonstrated that ‘no one governed it.’

Mussolini’s Italy: Life Under the Fascist Dictatorship, 1915-1945 (2005)

Whereas once the movement had flirted with feminism, now Mussolini required that female organizations focus on charity, ‘to the exclusion of any political action which must be left exclusively to the party.

Mussolini’s Italy: Life Under the Fascist Dictatorship, 1915-1945 (2005)

Mussolini was, of course, not the only dissident ever to leave a socialist party, especially during the trauma of the First World War. In many countries, the great conflict demanded that a choice be made between the ideals of internationalist socialism and those of the nation.

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