Renzo De Felice

Renzo De Felice (8 April 1929 - 25 May 1996) was one of the most important Italian historians of Fascism. He was born in Rieti and studied under Federico Chabod and Delio Cantimori at the University of Naples. During his time as student, De Felice was a member of the Italian Communist Party. After the 1956 Soviet repression of the Hungarian Revolution, De Felice was among 101 Italian intellectuals who sharply criticized the Italian Communist Party for its backing of the Soviets. He broke with the Communists and joined the Italian Socialist Party. He taught history at the University of Rome. He was married Livia to De Ruggiero. He died in Rome.

De Felice was best known for a massive seven volume biography of Benito Mussolini that was unfinished at the time of his death. De Felice was the founder and editor of the influential journal "Storia Contemporanea". De Felice also wrote a well-regarded history of Jewish life under the Fascist government and articles on Italian Jacobinism.

De Felice's leading interest was in fascism. In his view, there were two types of fascism, "fascism as a movement" and "fascism as a regime". De Felice saw the fascism, especially in the "movement" stage, as a revolutionary middle-class ideology that had deep roots in the Enlightenment. Moveover, De Felice insisted that fascism was not caused by fear of a proletarian revolution on the part of the lower middle classes - as much of the historiography on fascism maintained - but was rather an assertive movement originated by an emerging middle class in search for its proper role.

On the opposite, fascism as a regime was seen by De Felice as nothing more than Mussolini's policy - which tended to make of fascist ideology just the superstructure of Mussolini's dictatorship and personal power. De Felice felt that fascism should be seen as valid political ideology, not just something to be demonized and dismissed in simplistic terms. He argued that studies on Fascism should get out from the political debate and become a historiographical issue based on scientific assertions.

Furthermore, De Felice insisted that there was no connection or valid comparisons to be drawn between Italian Fascism and German National Socialism, which De Felice saw as being a completely different political ideology. De Felice was very controversial in Italy as well as abroad for what some felt were sympathatic studies of Italian Fascism. Many such as Giuliano Procacci, Paolo Alatri and Nicola Tranfaglia accused De Felice of writing an apologia of Fascism.

Work

*"Storia degli ebrei italiani sotto il fascismo", 1961.
*"The Jews in Fascist Italy. A History, "Enigma Books, 2001"
*"Mussolini", 7 volumes, 1965-1992.
*"Le interpretazioni del fascismo", 1969.
*"Il fascismo: le interpretazioni dei contemporanei e degli storici", 1970.
*"Intervista sul fascismo", edited by Michael Ledeen, 1975.
*"Ebrei in un paese arabo: gli ebrei nella Libia contemporanea tra colonialismo, nazionalismo arabo e sionismo (1835-1970)", 1978.

References

*Ledeen, Michael "Renzo De Felice and the Controversy over Italian Fascism" pages 269-283 from "Journal of Contemporary History", Volume 11, 1976.
*Painter, Borden "Renzo De Felice and the Historiography of Italian Fascism" pages 391-405 from "American Historical Review", Volume 95, 1990.
*Gentile, Emilio: "Renzo de Felice: A Tribute", in: "Journal of Contemporary History" 32,2 (1997), p. 139-151.