‘The question of whether Italians had to pay too much in terms of loss of liberty has been answered by Farrell in a passionate and thought-provoking way...This highly spirited, opinionated and rather remarkable book.’ – Andrew Roberts, Daily Telegraph

In his own time, the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini was one of the most admired figures of his age.

Winston Churchill called him ‘the Roman Genius’ and Pope Pius XI said he was ‘sent by providence’ to save Italy.

Yet Mussolini has gone down in history as nothing more than a grotesque buffoon.

Drawing on freshly discovered material - including correspondence previously unavailable outside academia - this a revelatory biography of the Italian fascist leader and dictator puts him in a fresh light.

How did Mussolini manage to take power and hold on to it for two decades?

And how did he successfully curtail democracy without using mass murder to stay in command?

Farrell answers these questions and more, focusing particularly on Mussolini's fatal error: his alliance with Hitler, whom he despised.

Anyone interested in history, politics, and World War II will encounter an intriguing and startling picture of one of the 20th century's key figures.

‘A fascinating and at times wilfully revisionist work...Farrell’s account of Mussolini’s last days — his betrayal and his pitiful death — is masterly and surprisingly moving...In many ways a fine, thought-provoking book.’ – Glasgow Herald

‘What [Farrell] shows is what so many liberals want to suppress: that just because a dictator is Right-wing does not mean that he is as bad as Hitler, and that no dictator so far, apart from Hitler, was as bad as Stalin, for whom many a liberal was an apologist. Farrell has written much the most plausible biography of Mussolini.’ – Daily Telegraph

‘Nicholas Farrell has produced a fascinating biography of Mussolini which is bound to be controversial...It is inevitable that Farrell will have the adjective “revisionist” attached to his name, although surely the alternative to “revisionist” history is plagiarism?...Farrell’s greatest contribution is to ground [Mussolini] in his context as a very Italian phenomenon...The questions Mussolini was trying to answer are, Farrell makes clear, as pertinent now as they were then...this mammoth but highly readable work.’ – Spectator

Nicholas Farrell read history at Cambridge University (Gonville and Caius College) and was for many years on the staff of the Sunday Telegraph.