Le campagne

The attention shown by Roberto Vivarelli to the rural dimension of the crisis of the liberal system has in fact revolutionised studies on the rise of fascism. In addition to analysing its role with respect to the overall articulation of the Storia delle origini del fascismo, the article aims to compare with the most recent historiography the specific thesis of the inseparability of the link between the radicalisation of the peasant classes, the affirmation of socialist maximalism and the consequent rise of fascist reaction. If the result resizes the original thesis of the lack of nationalisation of the Italian countryside, it confirms Vivarelli's original intuition of the absolute centrality of rural phenomena with respect to the evolution of the crisis of the liberal state. [Publisher's text]