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The Body of Il Duce: Mussolini's Corpse and the Fortunes of Italy

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Sergio Luzzatto's The Body of Il Duce tells an interesting story of what happened to Benito Mussolini after he died. Its a strange story how his death and corpse became a political football during the post World War II Italy, as left wing, right wing and moderate political parties tries to use Mussolini's death and corpse as a political leverage against each other.

Outside of some initial background material, the real story basically began with Mussolini getting executed and hanging upside down at Piazzlae Loreto in Milan and its ends with Mussolini finally getting a decent burial at the family cemetary in Predappio, Italy. But between the two events, tells the messy tale of Italian politics at its worst.

Author explained the brutal nature of Mussolini's death, fate of corpse as it hung upside down like a side of beef and the quest so many people had for its body after it was cut down. It may be that the war have compromised the national psyche of the Italian people. Of the three Axis powers, only the Italians who cheered Mussolini when he was victorious, abandoned him totally when the war turned against them. The freckle nature of the people led to a civil war between the Italians as well as with the Germans that created a brutal atmosphere that lingered on after the war. That was made painfully clear by the author as the same people who cheered Mussolini during Italy's days in the sun, hypercritically abused his body after his death. The book explored the nature of this treatment and its consequences.

Overall, a well written book about a subject matter that haven't been explored in detail by the English speaking world. Its fitting that an Italian author choose to explored this event that in some way, shed new lights on Benito Mussolini's influence on Italian people and nation.