Top Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 starsFascism Exposed
By P. J. Sullivan on June 24, 2009
Format: Hardcover
When this book came out in 1935, Mussolini was being praised in the Western media as a hero who kept the "red menace" out of Italy. It debunks such claims, and issues a stern warning to Americans about the true nature of Fascism. Mussolini "learned his Machiavelli well," says the author; that is the key to understanding him. He leaves no doubts about Mussolini's complicity in the murder of Matteotti, calling it "a necessary step in the consolidation of power."

Seldes is biased against Mussolini, but objective and honest in his facts. He insists that he holds no grudge about his expulsion from Italy in 1925. He knew Mussolini as a fellow journalist in Italy and draws on editorials penned by him, as well as on documents smuggled out by American journalists in Rome.

He examines the corporate state and concludes that Fascism is a failure because the masses of people are worse off. He criticizes Mussolini's human rights record and his suppression of press freedom. Fascist economic claims are fraudulent, he says, and Mussolini doesn't even make the trains run on time!

Seldes warns Americans that fascism already exists in America and needs only a demagogue to mobilize it into a dangerous force.

http://www.amazon.com/Sawdust-Caesar-Untold-Mussolini-Fascism/dp/0404561977