Burying Mussolini

Ordinary Life in the Shadows of Fascism

Paolo Heywood

• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9781501778278
• eBook ISBN: 9781501778292
• Topic: Ciencias sociales
• Subtopic: Políticas europeas

Burying Mussolini addresses the global resurgence in authoritarian and nationalist populism and its connection with valorizations of ordinary life. Predappio is the birthplace and burial site of Benito Mussolini and Italy's premier neo-fascist tourist site with hundreds of thousands of fascist sympathizers descending on the town annually. But, Paolo Heywood asks, what of the people who actually live there? What does 'ordinary life' look like in the shadow of Mussolini's grave?

As politicians, commentators, and social scientists seek to understand what lies behind new forms of political authoritarianism, and whether and how they resemble movements once thought consigned to the past, Burying Mussolini narrates how people in Predappio cope with the dark heritage of their home by carefully crafting a sense of 'ordinariness' that is itself inflected by ghosts of their fascist past.

Table of contents

• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. Fascism and the Social Life of “Ordinary Life”
• 2. Ordinary Exemplars and the Moralization of the Everyday
• 3. The “Carnival of Mussolini” and How to Pretend It Isn’t Happening
• 4. Everyday Space and Walking in the Fascist City
• 5. Ordinary Skepticism and Fascist Family Resemblances
• 6. Recycling the Past and the “Museum of Fascism”
• Conclusion
• Notes
• References
• Index