CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2010
| Author | Gray, Taylor Erin |
|---|---|
| Title | A Decade of Il Duce, A Century of Progress: Exhibiting Italian Fascism from Rome to Chicago |
| Summary | This thesis evaluates and compares three different contributions made by the Italian Fascist regime in the area of exhibition and spectacle in the early 1930s. I analyze the Exhibition of the Fascist Revolution (Mostra della Rivoluzione Fascista) held in Rome in 1932, Italian participation at the 1933-34 A Century of Progress International Exposition held in Chicago, and a mass flight led by General Italo Balbo across the Atlantic, landing alongside the fairgrounds on Lake Michigan. The Exhibition of the Fascist Revolution celebrated Fascism’s first decade in power. Historians have identified this exhibition as a key example of Fascist self-representation, making it an important source when evaluating Italian Fascist exhibitions. Opening less than one year later, the aviation-inspired Italian pavilion and other exhibits contained some of the same subject matter that had been present at the Mostra. Other themes exploited in Chicago emphasized Fascist Italy’s connection to ancient Rome and the Fascist regime’s achievements in the field of technology. The mass flight of Italo Balbo as investigated through a comparison of the American and Italian media presents a different picture of Chicago’s role. Some American sources emphasized Balbo’s presence at A Century of Progress, while the Italian side depicted Chicago as just one stop along a much longer route, culminating with the return to Italy as the primary focus. Balbo achieved a high level of celebrity in the United States in his role as goodwill ambassador from Fascist Italy, giving a world audience a glimpse of Fascist spectacle. These examples serve to demonstrate that the Italian Fascist regime attempted to present Fascism in the United States as capable of providing a viable, effective form of technological modernism. |
| Supervisor | Siefert, Marsha; Iordachi, Constantin |
| Department | History MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2010/gray_taylor-erin.pdf |
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