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The Italian members of staff of the International Labour Organization: a collective biography (1919–1939)

Publication . Torreggiani, Valerio

This article investigates the relationships between Fascist Italy and the International Labour Organization (ILO) during the interwar period, focusing on the Italian personnel of the ILO. It applies a prosopographical approach to mapping out the composition and development of the Italian community working at the ILO, exploring its social, cultural, and political characteristics and career trajectories. Three key findings emerge from this article. First of all, it is the first study of the gender, age, socio-economic, political, educational and professional backgrounds of the Italian civil servants employed at the ILO between 1919 and 1939. Second, the article illustrates how the Italian community of the ILO was far from being a static and homogeneous group; on the contrary, and especially if observed from a political perspective, the Italians were profoundly divided, mirroring the polarized political situation of their country. Third, my analysis demonstrates the value assigned to the daily work of the ILO by Fascist authorities, both in relation to the international diplomatic game and to the importance of counterbalancing the anti-fascist forces at work in the ILO. Finally, on a methodological level, the article offers an example of how prosopographical analysis, hybridized with a more narrative and biographical approach, can be used to study international organizations and their complex relationships both with their member states and with the general political context

2022Journal article

Restricted access

‘The most original and significant effort of political invention of Modern Times’. The reception of fascist corporatism in Britain in the 1930s

Publication . Torreggiani, Valerio

A contribution to recent historiographical debates concerning the transnational circulation of corporatist projects and ideas, the article aims to determine to what extent, and with what theoretical outlooks, the principles of the fascist corporatist State circulated in Great Britain during the 1930s. The reception of fascist corporatism will be analysed by examining the influences that the model of the corporatist State, developed in Italy in the interwar period by the fascist regime, exerted on those British political groups that showed an interest in the Italian corporatist experiment. The article will focus on three British political groups: catholic, conservative, and fascist. Observing how advocates of these three political groups incorporated and re-interpreted the fascist corporatist model will help to highlight those key elements that led to the adoption of fascist corporatism as a reference model by different political figures such as the Catholic thinkers Gilbert K. Chesterton and Douglas F. Jerrold; the Conservatives Harold Macmillan, Eustace Percy and Leopold Amery; and finally, the most important representatives of the British Union of Fascists, Oswald Mosley and Alexander R. Thomson.

2024Journal article

Open access

Capitalismo e regime fascista: dibattiti e prospettive di ricerca

Publication . Astore, Marianna; Torreggiani, Valerio

Despite extensive work in Italian historiography from the 1950s to the 1970s, the relationship between capitalism and the fascist regime has been somewhat neglected in recent decades. This article aims to reframe and place the issue back at the centre of the discussion. After reviewing prior Italian studies and the most recent international literature on the history of capitalism, it presents insights from new articles investigating how economic relations were shaped by the regime’s political context, and how fascism’s economic policy was influenced by specific lobbying groups during the 1920s and 1930s. Lastly, it proposes four research perspectives for looking at the relations between capitalism and the fascist regime, emphasizing the need for a deeper analysis of the dynamics between politics, interest groups and social classes; the influence of the international context on the Italian economy; the role of economists and economic theory; and the overlooked role of industrial and financial groups during the Salò Republic and the Second World War.

2024Journal article

Restricted access