Women, Antifascism and Mussolini's Italy: The Life of Marion Cave Rosselli

by Isabelle Richet

Overview

Marion Cave Rosselli is remembered as the 'perfect companion' of the Italian Antifascist leader Carlo Rosselli, assassinated in Paris in June 1937. But little is known about the young English student fired with revolutionary enthusiasm who moved to Florence in 1919, witnessed the violent march of fascism to power and thereafter became a resolute adversary of the Mussolini dictatorship. Based on a wealth of little-used private and public archives, this biography retraces her journey from a modest home on the outskirts of London to the first underground Antifascist opposition in Italy, from the prison island of Lipari to exile in Paris and the United States. It reveals the social, cultural and existential factors which underpinned her unflinching political engagement alongside her husband. It also highlights the many challenges faced by Antifascist women within a highly patriarchal movement by bringing to life the figure of a woman who challenged the traditional division of labour within the family and struggled to carve a political role for herself. Reconstructing Marion Cave Rosselli's experience in relation to the multiple political, social and cultural worlds she moved in, this book broadens our understanding of the Antifascist movement and offers a richly detailed portrait of a time full of hopes, anxieties and disappointments.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350155381
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	03/19/2020
Pages:	348
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.74(d)

About the Author

Isabelle Richet is Professor Emeritus at Universite´ Paris Diderot- Paris 7. She received a PhD in History from the Ecoles des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris. In recent years, her research has focused on exile and expatriation, especially on British and American expatriates in Italy. She has published several articles in Italian and English on Anglo-American expatriates and the Mussolini regime and has contributed to the volume Rethinking Antifascism. History, Memory and Politics, 1922 to the Present, edited by Hugo Garcia et al. (2016).

Table of Contents

List of Plates vii

Acknowledgements ix

Introduction 1

1 A British Education 6

2 Witnessing the Rise of Fascism in Florence (September 1919-January 1923) 25

3 Becoming Biancafiore (1923-24) 39

4 The Best of Times, The Worst of Times (1924-26) 61

5 From Milan to Savona: The Last Stand in Italy (July 1926-September 1927) 78

6 Welcome to the 'Escape Club': Lipari (January 1928-July 1929) 94

7 New Beginnings: The Heroic Years (1929-31) 116

8 Building a Life in Exile (1932-34) 137

9 The Personal is Political (1935-36) 160

10 Death in Normandy (Spring 1937) 175

11 Hope against Hope (July 1937-July 1940) 192

12 So Far Away from Italy USA - (July 1940-July 1943) 207

13 Hope is Reborn USA - (July 1943-June 1946) 220

14 Coming Home (July 1946-October 1949) 239

Abbreviations 257

Notes 258

Sources and Bibliography 318

Index 326

Editorial Reviews

'A good overview for students, academics and all those who are interested in the antifascist exile and especially in the Rosselli family during fascism.'

From the Publisher