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The Cult of the Duce is the first book to explore systematically the personality cult of the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. It examines the factors which informed the cult and looks in detail at its many manifestations in the visual arts, architecture, political spectacle and the media. The conviction that Mussolini was an exceptional individual first became dogma among fascists and then was communicated to the people at large. Intellectuals and artists helped fashion the idea of him as a new Caesar while the modern media of press, photography, cinema, and radio aggrandized his every public act. The book considers the way in which Italians experienced the personality cult and analyses its controversial resonances in the postwar period.
Edited by Stephen Gundle, Christopher Duggan, and Giuliana Pieri, with an afterword by R.J.B. Bosworth. Published by Manchester University Press in 2015. Paperback, measures 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches, 304 pages. ISBN 9780719096631