In this controversial and groundbreaking study, Simon Levis Sullam proposes a compelling reinterpretation of the political thought of one of Italy's founding fathers, Giuseppe Mazzini (1805-1872). By suggesting a new approach to understanding the origins of fascist ideology, he sheds much-needed light on the continuity between nineteenth-century Italian nationalism and fascism. Providing the first in-depth analysis of the religious aspects of Mazzini's nationalism (which has generally been categorized by historians as liberal and democratic), Levis Sullam identifies its authoritarian and...