Episode 53: Exploring the Contradictions of Mussolini’s Power as Il Duce with Peter Williamson

Peter Williamson's biography of Benito Mussolini is a valuable and insightful contribution to scholarship on the Italian dictator.
In this episode, I talk to Peter about the development of Mussolini's philosophy and political ideology, his approach to governance and leadership, and the factors that led to his undoing.
This episode is an excellent complement to previous episodes on Mussolini featuring Professors Richard Bosworth and John Foot respectively. And it holds powerful lessons for those in positions of leadership, as well as those in pursuit of power.
Peter's biography of Mussolini is called Duce: The Contradictions of Power and was published by Hurst Publishers in April 2023.

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18:02 the issue really is that he was never all the way over here in the first place. Never. He never, even in childhood, had the dispositions that would have put him all the way over here. No doubt that came through childhood experiences, and maybe he began with egalitarian values, but his disdain for others and desire to be at the top of a hierarchy was evident early on.