Marco Bresciani, “Learning from the Enemy: An Intellectual History of Antifascism in Interwar Europe”
The first comprehensive history of Italian revolutionary group Giustizia e Libertà
When democracy is under threat from authoritarianism, models of resistance must come to the fore. Giustizia e Libertà, founded by the Italian thinker and activist Carlo Rosselli in 1929, is one intriguing historical example. Operating both in exile and as part of a clandestine network at home, the organization fought against fascism and Nazism, while criticizing Stalinism. To defeat the enemy, the group aimed to go beyond the Marxist notion of class and to assert fresh concepts of nationhood and Europe. The book traces the group’s trajectories and debates and follows its legacy to the present.
– ‘Bresciani’s book is a remarkable contribution to the current debate on the distinctive nature of fascism(s)’ – CARLO GINZBURG, author of NEVERTHELESS: MACHIAVELLI, PASCAL
– ‘The story that Bresciani tells with great finesse in this necessary book is the heroic history that accompanied the birth of democracy in Italy’ – NADIA URBINATI, author of ME THE PEOPLE
– ‘Bresciani has given a great gift to fascism’s enemies everywhere … a book of rare intelligence and inspiration’ – JOSEPH FRONCZAK, author of EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE
– ‘Learning from the Enemy is essential reading for anyone interested in the histories of antifascism, socialism, and liberalism in the twentieth century’ – IAIN STEWART, author of RAYMOND ARON AND LIBERAL THOUGHT IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Reviews
· Notwithstanding its small size, Giustizia e Libertà had an international relevance, due to the interaction between its exile perception of fascism, affected by the Parisian debates on totalitarianism, and a political activity fully immersed in the Italian reality. Bresciani’s book is a remarkable contribution to the current debate on the distinctive nature of fascism(s).
Carlo Ginzburg
· The story that Marco Bresciani tells with great finesse in this necessary book is a very important chapter in the heroic history that accompanied the birth of democracy in Italy. It started far back, from when fascism took power and grew in exile, in the underground struggle, in the discussions among the anti-fascists of Giustizia e Libertà about the conditions of political democracy. The movement that had as its founder Carlo Rosselli, the author of Liberal Socialism, was both internationalist and national, engaged in the Spanish Civil War with one of its battalions, and extraordinarily capable of understanding the imperialist nature of Nazi-Fascism before it manifested itself on the battlefields of Europe. This book is a valuable reconstruction of that history.
Nadia Urbinati, Kyriakos Tsakopoulos Professor of Political Theory, Columbia University
· Marco Bresciani has given a great gift to fascism’s enemies everywhere. He captures the fierce intellectual energy that early antifascist thinkers such as Carlo Rosselli drew from their trials of resistance, conspiracy, exile, prison, and combat. Bresciani also matches their intellectual energy with his own. The result is a book of rare intelligence and inspiration.
Joseph Fronczak, Princeton University, author of Everything Is Possible: Antifascism and the Left in the Age of Fascism
· Marco Bresciani’s history of the Italian anti-fascist group Giustizia e Liberta is the first available treatment in English of its subject. Based on a wide range of published and archival sources, the book offers numerous insights into this important group’s complicated relationship to fascism, communism, and the history of Italian democracy. Bresciani is a sure guide to the group’s remarkable ideological diversity, and its legacy in the postwar era. Learning from the Enemy is essential reading for anyone interested in the histories of anti-fascism, socialism, and liberalism in the twentieth century.
Iain Stewart, Unversity College London, author of Raymond Aron and Liberal Thought in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge University Press, 2020)