THE KEY POLITICAL DOCUMENT OF FASCIST THOUGHT

MUSSOLINI, BENITO.

La Dottrina del Fascismo. Cun una Storia del Movimento Fascista di Gioacchino Volpe.

Milano, Treves, 1932.

4to. Original printed wrappers. Uncut and unopened. With a brindstamped publisher's mark to title-page. A very nice copy, with slight marginal wear. (8), 133, (3) pp.

The scarce first edition in book form, fourth thousand (i.e. with mention of "quinto migliaio" on title-page), of the key political document of fascist philosophical thought - the publication in which the ideological cornerstones of The National Fascist Party (Partito Nazionale Fascista, PNF) are officially established.

"The Doctrine of Fascism", the first part of which was actually written by Giovanni Gentile, who is not mentioned as the author, was originally published in the Italian Encyclopedia Vol. 14, 1932, as the first section of a lengthy entry on "Fascismo" (Fascism). Gioacchino Volpe's "History on the Fascist Movement" was also published in that volume, as an appendix to Mussolini's entry, and immediately after the Encyclopaedia-publication, the two pieces were published together, in the first book form of the work, under the title "La Dottrina del Fascismo. Con una Storia del Movimento Fascista di Giocchino Volpe", by the "Biblioteca della Enciclopedia Italiana", which undertook the separate publishing of the most important entries of the Encyclopaedia. Mussolini added a series of notes that appered for the first time in the first publication in book-form. The present copy bears the imprint "Quinto migliaio" at the foot of the title-page. We have been unable to determine whether this actually means that the issues of the first edition were in fact divided into thousands and this thus the fourth thousand, or whether, as would have been common practice with eg. propagandist literature, the "fourth thousand" was a way to boost the public perception of the immediate reception of the work.

No matter whther the "Quinto migliaio" was a boosting gimmick or not, the work ended up being published in enormous numbers after its initial publication in 1932. Not only did it appear in several newspapers already in 1932, it was also published again in book form already in 1933 and kept appearing in different versions, with other additions on the subject, throughout the following decades. It was also translated into numerous other languages and came to have a tremendous impact on the spreading of fascist thought.

This magnum opus of Italian fascism came to have the greatest impact upon Italian politics and the entire political climate of Europe. A key concept of the work is summed up in Mussolini's own words: "Granted that the 19th century was the century of socialism, liberalism, democracy, this does not mean that the 20th century must also be the century of socialism, liberalism, democracy. Political doctrines pass; nations remain. We are free to believe that this is the century of authority, a century tending to the 'right', a Fascist century. If the 19th century was the century of the individual (liberalism implies individualism) we are free to believe that this is the 'collective' century, and therefore the century of the State."

Order-nr.: 56938