My rise and fall
By: by Benito Mussolini ; foreword to Volume I by Richard Washburn Child ; Volume II edited, with a preface, by Max Ascoli ; new introduction by Richard Lamb.
Contributors: Mussolini, Benito, 1883-1945.; Mussolini, Benito, 1883-1945.
Edition: 1st Da Capo Press ed.
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 318
Subjects: Mussolini, Benito, 1883-1945; Heads of state -- Italy -- Biography; Fascism -- Italy -- History; World War, 1939-1945 -- Italy; Italy -- Politics and government -- 1914-1945; Italy -- History -- 1922-1945 -- Sources
Genres: Sources.
Description: Here for the first time in one volume, are two rare autobiographical works by Benito Mussolini (1883-1945), founder of Fascism and Italian dictator for 21 years. The first volume (published in English in 1928 as My Autobiography) describes in the Duce's own inimitable voice his youth, years as an agitator and journalist, experiences in World War I (including his severe wounding), the formation and revolutionary struggles of the Fascist Party, the March on Rome, and his early years in power.

The second volume (published in English in 1948 as The Fall of Mussolini) was written during the brief period between his rescue by the Germans in September 1943 and his execution by Italian partisans in April 1945. The Duce retreats to the safe (but psychologically revealing) distance of the third person in describing his last year in power and the coup d'etat that deposed him.

My Rise and Fall allows readers to view the dictator from two unique vantage points: Il Duce, eyes on the horizon, chin thrust forward, as he nears his political zenith; and Mussolini at his nadir, a desperate, powerless, sawdust Caesar, soon to be shot and hanged, head down, for all to scorn.
Notes: Vol. 1 originally published: My autobiography. New York, 1928; v. 2 originally published: The fall of Mussolini : his own story. New York, 1948.
Vol. 2 translation of Il Tempo del bastone e della carota.