Italy
Man in Black
MUSSOLINI By R. J. B. Bosworth. Illustrated. 584 pp. New York: Oxford University Press. $35. Americans have tended to think of Benito Mussolini as a cross between a gangster and a buffoon, a ”Sawdust Caesar” who hijacked Italian democracy and led his country to disaster as Hitler’s junior partner. But in recent decades a number…
Continue readingMaking Way for Berlusconi
The recent Italian elections were not just a clear triumph for the center-right coalition of media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi. They were also a major defeat for the center-left parties that have governed the country since their victory in 1996. In one sense, their defeat bears some resemblance to Al Gore’s loss to George W. Bush…
Continue readingItaly’s Moment of Decision
The fact that Italy is about to elect its 59th government since World War II is regarded with almost complete indifference in the United States. Since the end of the cold war and the dissolution of the Italian Communist Party, Italy has virtually disappeared from the radar screen of American foreign policy. But the potential…
Continue readingThe Original Spin Doctor
Niccolo’s Smile A Biography of Machiavelli. By Maurizio Viroli. Translated by Antony Shugaar. 271 pp. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux. $25. Although Niccolo Rated R Machiavelli was largely ignored during his own lifetime and vilified after his death, his time appears to have come (or to have come again). Now that the cold war…
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