Abstract

This paper proposes a historiographical analysis of the relationship between antifascism and Italian society over the twenty years in which fascism was in power. This relationship was substantially glossed over by postwar historiography, paralyzed as it was by its own anti-fascist paradigm. Since the 1980s, however, numerous studies have contributed significantly to redefining the problem of fascism in Italian history, allowing us not only to open new historiographical issues, but also to re-read the old in a new light. This has equally regarded the problem diametrically opposed to that of fascism, namely anti-fascism. But how have the new studies on fascism affected the reading of the history of Italian anti-fascism? To what extent have they redirected research in this area?