On September 18, 1938, Benito Mussolini disembarked in the port city of Trieste to begin a seven-day visit of the Tre Venezie. The tour was in keeping with Mussolini's policy of andare verso il popolo which involved periodic visits to Italy's regions. It was also an opportunity to impose the cult of the Duce on a frontier region which had, since the 1920s, been the site of harsh anti-Slav policies designed to Italianize the Venezia-Giulia region. This article examines the workings of the cult in Trieste where the regime was anxious to demonstrate that it was present in a city that had felt neglected by Rome. Often viewed as a top-down enterprise, this article will explore how the cult of the Duce relied significantly on local dynamics and spaces.

One of the aspects of the formation of consensus under the Fascist state concerns the construction of the Fascist ‘man’. This article takes up this notion and explores it in relation to children. The first part deal with the legislative process according to which Fascist rituals and myths were introduced into the school curriculum. The second part examines the letters that were sent to the Duce by children during the period of the regime. The majority of letters appear to have been dictated by elementary school teachers according to precise directives, but nonetheless there is some evidence of the spontaneous manifestation of the feelings of infants. The most significant aspect concerns the transfiguration of the Duce himself into a figure of fable in ways that could not but impact on the imagination of those who were born and raised between the 1920s and later 1930s.

During the Fascist regime millions of postcards circulated featuring Mussolini in many different guises and forms. This article reflects on their production, distribution and consumption and considers the extent to which they can be seen as part of the propaganda of a totalitarian regime. It also explores the meanings of the imagery of a selection of postcards. It argues that Mussolini postcards, despite their vast numbers, amounted in fact to only a small proportion of those circulating under the regime. Moreover, many of them were produced by private publishers for profit rather that Fascist organisations or the state. Therefore they cannot simply be considered as a manifestation of totalitarianism and must rather be conceived in large part as an effect of the impact of Mussolini on popular culture.

Despite the increasing scholarly attention dedicated to the study of reception and memory of Fascism, these issues have not yet been widely addressed from the standpoint of collective memories in specific local contexts. Through a combined use of oral history and micro-history, this study explores the identity and collective memory of Predappio, Mussolini's hometown. Predappio is an emblematic place on account of its ‘public’ role within the Italian nation as the town of the Duce and, since 1957, the site of neofascist pilgrimages. By looking at memories of people born under the regime from different political orientations, ranging from the right to the left, it concentrates on the local collective memory of Fascism, of Mussolini and of the ongoing post-war cult of the Duce. The article aims to demonstrate both the relevance of local mythologies and the increasing spread of a reconciliatory narrative of Fascism based on traditional values such as family and kinship.

This article explores the portrayal of Mussolini in film and television drama. It considers the contexts in which films and mini-series were made from the 1970s and the problems faced in bringing the Duce to the screen, mostly in dramas that stressed the final phase of his rule. Despite efforts to ensure authenticity in the reconstruction of locations, events and people, there was a notable emphasis on the private and personal dimensions of the dictator's life, a sphere in which screenplays had to indulge in invention in keeping with the practices of all ‘biopics’. The resulting ‘screen Mussolini’ is more human and potentially more sympathetic than the Mussolini of historiography. In a situation in which the legacies of Fascism and anti-fascism are still debated, this media construction has been controversial. The article assesses, using textual analysis, the meanings of the different representational solutions deployed in the films and considers some of the issues involved in playing Mussolini.

The processes of globalisation, market deregulation and the retreat of the welfare state in advanced capitalist societies have revitalised the debate about how to reconcile economic development and social cohesion. This debate has been widespread in Italy, where great differences occur between local contexts as regards economic performance, the level of inequality and, more generally, the cohesion of the social fabric. Within this framework, this paper explores the level of both economic development and social cohesion in Italian provinces, through the analysis of secondary data. With particular reference to the Italian situation, the article therefore contributes to the debate on the focalisation and operationalisation of the two concepts. Finally, the complex relation between economic development and social cohesion is analysed, and its non-linear trend is outlined.