R. J. B. Bosworth
Richard James Boon Bosworth FAHA, FASSA (7 December 1943) is an Australian historian and author, and a leading expert on Benito Mussolini and Fascist Italy, having written extensively on both topics.
[1][2] Bosworth received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Sydney, before going on to doctoral study at St John's College, Cambridge.
[6] Bosworth wrote his first book as part of a series – Topics in Modern History – seeking to assist high school and university teachers and students, providing a "guiding and stimulating" overview of Fascist Italy, rather than in-depth historical analysis.
[8] He presents Italy up to 1945 as pretending to be a Great Power in Europe, despite poor geography and resources, and argues that this pretence has taken its toll.
[10] Here again, Bosworth presents Italy as possessing the numbers and history of a great power, but really being closer to a small state or colony in identity.
[13] Accordingly, Bosworth presents the Italian king, Victor Emmanuel III, as a figurehead, delegating power and rarely making positive foreign interventions.
[11][12] Bosworth portrays decision makers largely uninfluenced by external pressures, including an Italian public who wanted peace.
[14] In this book, Bosworth aims to "pursue the question of the 'comfortable' or 'mad' ways in which societies went through the Second World War have historicised and thus comprehended that experience," emphasising that historicization over time.
[20][21][22] Bosworth argues that recent scholarship has "deflected the field away from its moral and political purpose, which is to be vigilant against renewed fascism and protective of anti-fascism," attributing this failure to cultural relativism and postmodernism.
[19] The book has been accused of being 'unnecessarily polemical', dismissing much of the work done in the last twenty years, which has focused on more specific elements of Italian Fascism, like "ideology, cultural products, government policy, gender relations, sexuality, and public and private space.
[27] Although one scholar notes an "occasionally rambling and disjointed narrative structure", he also calls it, "arguably the most complete biography of the Fascist dictator currently available in any language.
"[23] Bosworth's characterisation as a weak dictator, focused on short-term consolidation of power and prestige, differs from other scholars' portrayals.
"[32] In this book, Bosworth connects ancient and modern Rome into an account of the city through the centuries, examining its architecture and culture.
[1] Bosworth portrays her as an 'unremarkable' "airhead", who was "neither charismatic nor clever nor cultured", despite belonging to a "respectable, ambitious and deeply Catholic Roman bourgeois family.
"[44] Bosworth fits into the orthodox Anglo-Saxon scholarly tradition on Italian Fascism: his biography focuses on Mussolini's politics, rather than his personality.
[23] When he does discuss Mussolini's personality, Bosworth portrays him uniquely: "Bosworth's Duce was a cynical misanthrope, a crude Darwinist, and an ideological agnostic, a man who viewed politics not as a means to realize any long-held vision but rather as an area of opportunistic compromises and deals designed to achieve short-term tactical advantages that bolstered his own power and prestige.
[23] He argues that Mussolini simply represented the Italy of his time, particularly their "feelings of inferiority and resentment after World War I", rather than swaying or deceiving his population.
Especially in his book The Italian Dictatorship, Bosworth condemns contemporary scholarship for what he sees as a failure to fulfil its moral and political duty.
[19][20][21][22] In this, Bosworth has been criticised as 'politicising scholarly activity' in a way which has caused him to neglect important advancements in the decades preceding his work.
