Mussolini's Daughter

A thrilling biography of Edda MussoliniBenito Mussolinis favorite daughter, one of the most influential women in 1930s Europeand a heart-stopping account of the unraveling of the Fascist dream in Italy, from award-winning historian and author of the acclaimed Resistance Quartet, Caroline Moorehead

Reads like a page-turning thriller.BookPage

Edda Mussolini was the Italian dictator Benito Mussolinis oldest and favorite child. At 19, she was married to Count Galleazzo Ciano, Il Duces Minister for Foreign Affairs during the 1930s, the most turbulent decade in Italys fascist history. In the years preceding World War II, Edda ruled over Italys aristocratic families and the cultured and middle classes while selling Fascism on the international stage. How a young woman wielded such control is the heart of Mooreheads fascinating history. The issues that emerge reveal not only a great deal about the power of fascism, but also the ease with which dictatorship so easily took hold in a country weakened by war and a continent mired in chaos and desperate for peace.

Drawing on a wealth of archival material, some newly released, along with memoirs and personal papers, Mussolinis Daughter paints a portrait of a woman in her twenties whose sheer force of character and ruthless narcissism helped impose a brutal and vulgar movement on a pliable and complicit society. Yet as Moorehead shows, not even Eddas colossal willpower, her scheming, nor her fathers avowed love could save her husband from Mussolinis brutal vengeance.

As she did in her Resistance Quartet, Moorehead delves deep into the past, exploring what fascism felt like to those living under it, how it blossomed and grew, and how fascists and aristocrats joined forces to pursue ten years of extravagance, amorality, and excessive luxurygreed, excess, and ambition that set the world on fire. The result is a powerful portrait of a young woman who played a key role in one of the most terrifying and violent periods in human history.

Based on newly released archives, this landmark biography reveals:

A Dictator's Daughter: The complex bond between Benito Mussolini and his favorite child, Eddathe one person who was never afraid of him.The Rise and Fall of Fascism: An insider account of the extravagance, amorality, and political maneuvering that defined Italian Fascism before its ultimate collapse.Love and Betrayal: The story of Eddas marriage to Count Galleazzo Ciano and the brutal vengeance from her own father that not even she could prevent.World War II History: How one of Europes most influential women navigated the turbulent years leading up to and during World War II, from Rome to Shanghai.

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