Mussolini’s Daughter

The New York Times bestselling author of the acclaimed Resistance Quartet returns with the incredible story of Mussolini’s daughter,Eddaone of the most influential women in 1930s Italy and a powerful proponent of the fascist movement. Edda Mussolini was the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini’s oldest and favorite child. At 19she was married to Count Galleazzo CianoIl Duce’s Minister for Foreign Affairs during the 1930sthe most turbulent decade in Italy’s fascist history. In the years preceding World War IIEdda ruled over Italy’s aristocratic families and the cultured and middle classes while selling Fascism on the international stage. How a young woman wielded such control is the heart of Caroline Moore’s fascinating history. The issues that emerge reveal not only a great deal about the power of fascismbut also the ease with which dictatorship so easily took hold in a country weakened by war and a continent mired in chaos and desperate for peace. Drawing on a wealth of archival materialsome newly releasedalong with memoirs and personal papersMussolini’s Daughter paints a portrait of a woman in her twenties whose sheer force of character and ruthless narcissism helped impose a brutal and vulgar movement on a pliable and complicit society. Yet as Moorehead showsnot even Edda’s colossal willpowerher schemingnor her father’s avowed love could save her husband from Mussolini’s brutal vengeance. As she did in her Resistance QuartetMoorehead delves deep into the pastexploring what fascism felt like to those living under ithow it blossomed and grewand how fascists and aristocrats joined forces to pursue ten years of extravaganceamoralityand excessive luxury–greedexcessand ambition that set the world on fire. The result is a powerful portrait of a young woman who played a key role in one of the most terrifying and violent periods in human history.