MUSSOLINI, BENITO

born July 29, 1883, Predappio, Italy died April 28, 1945, near Dongo Benito Mussolini. in full Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini, byname Il Duce (Italian: The Leader) Italian prime minister (192243) and the first of 20th-century Europe's fascist dictators. Additional reading Biographies in English include Ivone Kirkpatrick, Mussolini: A Study in Power (1964, reprinted 1976); A. James Gregor, Young Mussolini and the Intellectual Origins of Fascism (1979), a revisionist history that sees the sources of his thought in revolutionary socialism; Denis Mack Smith, Mussolini (1981, reissued 1994), a traditional interpretation; and Anthony James Joes, Mussolini (1982), a revisionist biography. Laura Fermi, Mussolini (1961, reissued 1974), is particularly valuable for the years of power; and Christopher Hibbert, Il Duce (1962; also published as Benito Mussolini, rev. ed., 1965, reprinted 1986), for the final phase. Roy MacGregor-Hastie, The Day of the Lion (1963), is an original and controversial study of Mussolini's hold upon the Italian people. Paolo Monelli, Mussolini: An Intimate Life (1953; originally published in Italian, 1950), gives an excellent portrait of the man. More recent work includes John Whittam, Fascist Italy (1995); the very useful work of R.J.B. Bosworth, The Italian Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives in the Interpretation of Mussolini and Fascism (1998); and Richard Lamb, Mussolini as Diplomat: Il Duce's Italy on the World Stage (1999). The fundamental work on Mussolini, unavailable in English, is the controversial and monumental Renzo De Felice, Mussolini, 4 vol. in 8 (196597).