Italy emerged from the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 with the feeling that it had been denied its just rewards by ungrateful allies and that its victory was thus mutilated. Integrating this vengefulness into his diplomacy in the 1920s, Mussolini undertook a policy of selected treaty revision aimed at the breakup of the newly created state of Yugoslavia through covert operations. These stratagems proved futile. Ignoring the threat posed by Nazi Germany's obvious determination to annex Austria, whose continued independence was key to Italy's security in Europe, Mussolini successfully...

Italy emerged from World War I triumphant but ostracized from the comity of victors, which led to the notion in Italy that a war had been won but a peace lost. The Legend of the Mutilated Victory demonstrates that Italy's conflict with America over the nature of the peace was a direct outgrowth of Italy's ongoing quarrels with the Allies, quarrels that formed the basis of the mutilated victory. In a clear and cogently argued narrative, Burgwyn reassesses Sidney Sonnino's diplomacy as he lead Italy to victory in the imbroglio of the war and domestic political intrigue. He observes...