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Winner of the 1998 Distinguished Scholarship Award of the Pacific Sociological Association.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations 
Acknowledgments 
INTRODUCTION 
Narrative and Representation 
Aesthetics and Politics 
1. MUSSOLINI' S AESTHETIC POLITICS 
The Politician as Artist 
From Art to Violence 
2. MUSSOLINI THE MYTH 
Mussolini in the Culture of Personality 
Mussolini and the Party 
The Deification of Mussolini 
3· THE POLITICS OF SYMBOLS: FROM CONTENT TO FORM 
The Myth of Rome 
The Discourse on Style 
4· BODILY ECONOMY: CORPORATIVISM AND CONSUMPTION 
Disembodying the Body 
Material! Consumption 
Mimetic Economy 
Spectacle and Desire 
5· WAR AND MELODRAMA
The Politics of Land 
The Politics of War 
CONCLUSIONS 
Notes 
Bibliography 
Photograph Credits 
Index 

About the Author

Simonetta Falasca-Zamponi is Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Reviews

"An excellent contribution to the growing number of studies of Fascist political culture and public rituals."
*American Journal of Sociology*