Contents

Acknowledgements

List of Illustrations and Tables

List of Contributors

Introduction

Vanda Wilcox

Chapter 1

A Military History of the Turco-Italian War (1911-1912) for Libya and its Impact on Italy’s Entry into the First World War

Bruce Vandervort

Introduction

To the Fourth Shore

Consequences

Chapter 2

The Evolution of Tactical Regulations in the Italian Army in the Great War

Filippo Cappellano

Tactical Regulations and the Evolution of Doctrine After Caporetto

Chapter 3

The Italian Air Force from Its Origins to 1923

Andrea Ungari

Introduction

I The Debate on the Italian Air Corps on the Eve of the Italo-Turkish War

II The War in Libya and Its Consequences

III Italian Aviation on the Eve of the First World War

IV The Outbreak of the First World War

V Giovan Battista Marieni, Head of the Air Force during the War

VI After Caporetto: The General Commissariat for the Air Force

VIII The Post-War Period

IX The ‘Dark Years’ of Italian Aviation

X The Renewal of the Debate on Italian Aviation: Attilio Longoni and the Fascist Movement

XI Fascism and the Creation of the Italian Air Force

Conclusions

Chapter 4

Discipline and Military Justice in the Italian Army

Irene Guerrini and Marco Pluviano Guerrini and Pluviano

Chapter 5

A Machiavellian Ally? Italy in the Entente (1914-1918)

Stefano Marcuzzi

Italy’s Foreign Policy up to the First World War

Choosing Sides

From a National War to a World War

The Colonial Dispute

Promoting Italy’s Cause

From Crisis to Victory

Conclusions

Chapter 6

Italy, the Adriatic and the Balkans: From the Great War to the Eve of the Peace Conference

Francesco Caccamo

Background

The Adriatic and the Balkans in Italy’s War Aims

Clashes over the Balkans in the Early Phase of the War

From the Debate over the Policy of Nationalities to the End of Hostilities

Chapter 7

An Imperial Education for Times of Transition: Italian Conquest, Occupation and Civil Administration of the Southeast Aegean, 1912-23

Valerie McGuire

Imagining the Mediterranean

The ‘City of the Aegean’ under Italian Occupation

The Asia Minor Campaign: Integration and Annexation

Chapter 8

Inventing Fascism in the Period of Italian Neutrality: the Case of Benito Mussolini, August 1914 – May 1915

Paul O’Brien

Chapter 9

Liberalism, Civil Rights, and Reform: Vittorio Emanuele Orlando and the Great War

Spencer M. Di Scala

Member of the Team: ‘Italian Democracy in the Making’

Orlando and the Catholics

The Debate over Intervention

Minister of Justice (Again)

Interior Minister

The Question of Civilian Control of the Military

‘Presidente della Vittoria’

Chapter 10

Catholic Neutralism and the Peasant Protest against War, 1914-1918

Claudia Baldoli

Catholic Neutralism

Peasant Protest: the White Leagues

Into the War

Conclusion

Chapter 11

Demobilisation and Political Violence in Italy, 1918-1922

Giulia Albanese

Early Post-War Period, Demobilization and Politics

The Politics of Civil War and the Memory of the World War

Conclusions

Chapter 12

Women’s Experiences with War

Allison Scardino Belzer

Women’s History and the Great War: Sources

Women in Wartime Italy

Models of Italian Femininity

Real Women at the Italian Front

Chapter 13

The Catholic Church and the War

Carlo Stiaccini

The Religious Face of the War

From the ‘Blessing of Arms’ to the ‘Useless Slaughter’

Priests in Khaki

Chapter 14

Monetary and Financial Policy and the Crisis of Liberal Italy, 1914-22

Douglas J. Forsyth

Chapter 15

The Industrial and Agricultural Mobilization of Italy

Fabio Degli Esposti

1 Some Initial Considerations

2 Performance of the Italian Industrial Sector

3 The Role of the State, Private Business and Workers in Industrial Mobilization

4 Wartime Agricultural Production

5 Agricultural Interests and Food Provisioning Policy: a Difficult Relationship

Chapter 16

Futurism and the Avant-Gardes

Selena Daly

The Interventionist Crisis, August 1914-May 1915

On the Battlefield

On the Home Front

Avant-garde Artists and the Servizio Propaganda

The Futurist Political Party and the Post-War Period

Chapter 17

The Soldier and the Cinematic Lieutenant. The Great War in Italian Silent Cinema (1915-18)

Irene Lottini

‘The war, the real one’ ('La guerra, quella vera')

‘The marvellous patriotic-sentimental feature film’ (‘Il meraviglioso lungo metraggio patriottico-sentimentale’)

Chapter 18

Commemoration and the Cult of the Fallen in Italy

Oliver Janz

Introduction

Microcosms of Mourning and Commemoration of the Dead

The Unknown Soldier

War Memorials

Pacifist-Socialist Cults of the Fallen

Memorial Parks

Local Monument Cult under Fascism

Fascist Monument Policy in the 1930s

Conclusion

Timeline of Key Events, 1911-1922

Bibliography

Index