Dictating Demography: The Problem of Population in Fascist Italy (Cambridge Studies in Population, Economy and Society in Past Time)

This book is a detailed examination of the demographic policy of Mussolini's Fascist regime. Based on archival research, it examines both the Italian statistics, and the demographic theory of the time. The author shows how the Fascists used statistics to mold public opinion through propaganda, as well as to form policy. He describes their program to increase the population in Italy, and reveals what the policy behind this program tells us about the contradictory nature of Fascism itself--it was at the same time modern and antimodern, revolutionary and reactionary.