For Italian intellectuals, the terms fascist and antifascist continue to be the hard currency of contemporary political debate

to the point that if you are not one, you must be the other. When professor Renzo de Felice suggests that fascism describes a moment in the Italian past—and only that—he is challenging the very heart of current orthodoxy. The nature of his analysis of the recent Italian past is itself at odds with the traditional version, and represents a radical departure from conventional wisdom.

De Felice's ideas about fascism have a broad significance, quite apart from their importance in the contemporary Italian scene. Perhaps no one knows as much about fascism, and no one has given the subject such a rigorous historical analysis.