ABSTRACT
Italy – this European country neither large nor small – should matter to World War II scholars because the war would be simply impossible to understand without it for several reasons. It was in Italy that a totalitarian form of a political regime – whose fullest application would be later found in Germany, with many more nuanced versions in Europe – was first created; also, having attacked an independent Ethiopia in the Autumn of 1935, then Spain, and then Albania, Italy was a ‘junior partner’ in helping destroy peace in Europe and the world. However, for a long time Italy has almost been absent from international military historiography about World War II. In recent general histories, there are only scant mentions of Italy: quite often incorrect, and almost never considering Italian academic literature. The historiography about Italian involvement in the decade of war has gone through three phases corresponding to three different generations, which are analysed in this chapter, with progressively expanding chronologies: the first, which considered the 1940–1943 period, was made up of official publications and of those who were personally involved; the second, focused on the 1940–1945 period, was made up of scholars; the third included critical scholars, who were further separated from the myths and controversies of the Cold War, and started reflecting on the 1935–1945 decade as a whole.
