Reviews for Mussolini's early diplomacy

The average rating for Mussolini's early diplomacy based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-11-08 00:00:00 Thomas Herrera This is an older account of the diplomatic relations between fascist Italy and the rest of the world. It covers aspects related to not only the European scene but Africa and North America as well. It is not as Mussolini centric as the title leads to believe spending time on the professional liberal Foreign Service that Mussolini inherited as well. The book is very thorough for the time period that it covers and the division into phases well somewhat random do allow for an easy segmentation of topics. The characterization of the rivalry with France and how it fit in to the break with Great Britain are important reasons for the shift towards Germany as the years went on. This book is geared to stop before the coming of the Ethiopian campaign and the Spanish Civil War where the diplomacy changes hands. This book does serve as a useful benchmark for how Italy's diplomacy went with Britain before the issues forced them to diverge. There are two major complaints with this book that make it three stars. The first is that so much new scholarship has been done that this is no longer the standard in the field. Much of what is in here can be gleamed from biographies of Mussolini and the discussion of the diplomatic service is not so engaging that it cannot be understood from other sources. The second problem is that it is just written in a way that does not make it engaging. Even as I research almost this direct subject I am put off by the plain way it is written. The diplomatic history is explored well but just does not interest the reader in the way it is presented.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-03-13 00:00:00 Danielle Rodriguez 3.5