Emilio Gentile (born 1946, in

Bojano Bojano or Boiano is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Campobasso, Molise, south-central Italy. History Originally named Bovianum, it was settled by the 7th century BC. As the capital of the Pentri, a tribe of the Samnites, it played a maj ...

) is an Italian

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

and

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professor ...

, specializing in the

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

, ideology, and culture of Italian fascism. Gentile is considered one of Italy's foremost

cultural historians Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups ...

of the Italian Fascist regime and its ideology. He studied under the renowned Italian historian

Renzo De Felice Renzo De Felice (8 April 1929 – 25 May 1996) was an Italian historian, who specialized in the Fascist era, writing, among other works, a 6000-page biography of Mussolini (4 volumes, 1965–1997). He argued that Mussolini was a revolutionary m ...

and wrote a book about him. Gentile serves as Professor of History at the

Sapienza University of Rome The Sapienza University of Rome ( it, Sapienza – Università di Roma), also called simply Sapienza or the University of Rome, and formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", is a public research university located in Rome, Ita ...

. He considers fascism a form of

political religion A secular religion is a communal belief system that often rejects or neglects the metaphysical aspects of the supernatural, commonly associated with traditional religion, instead placing typical religious qualities in earthly entities. Among syste ...

. He also applied the theory of political religion to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

in the essay ''Politics as Religion'' (2006) regarding the sacralization of politics in the

aftermath of the September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks transformed the first term of President George W. Bush and led to what he has called the war on terror. The accuracy of describing it as a "war" and its political motivations and consequences are the topic of strenuous ...

. In 2003, Gentile was awarded the Hans Sigrist Prize.

Works

* ''Storia del partito fascista. 1919-1922. Movimento e milizia''. 1989 * ''Il culto del littorio. La sacralizzazione della politica nell'Italia fascista''. Rome/Bari. 1993 ** English translation: The Sacralization of Politics in Fascist Italy, 1996,

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the reti ...

hup.harvard.edu
* ''Le religioni della politica. Fra democrazie e totalitarismi''. Laterza, Rome 2001 ** English translation: * ''Fascismo. Storia e interpretazione''. Rome/Bari. 2002 * ''Il mito dello Stato nuovo. Dal radicalismo nazionale al fascismo''. 2002 * ''Le origini dell'Italia contemporanea. L'età giolittiana''. 2003 * ''

. Lo storico e il personaggio''. 2003 * ''Il fascismo in tre capitoli''. 2006 * ''La Grande Italia. Il mito della nazione nel XX secolo''. 2006 ** English translation: *''La democrazia di Dio. La religione americana nell'era dell'impero e del terrore'', Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2006. . ** English translation: * ''Il fascino del persecutore.

George Mosse Gerhard "George" Lachmann Mosse (September 20, 1918 – January 22, 1999) was an American historian, who emigrated from Nazi Germany first to Great Britain and then to the United States. He was professor of history at the University of Iowa, the ...

e i totalitarismi''. Carocci. 2007 * ''L'apocalisse della modernità. La grande guerra per l'uomo nuovo''. Mondadori. 2008 *''Contro Cesare. Cristianesimo e totalitarismo nell'epoca dei fascismi'', Milano, Feltrinelli, 2010. . *''Né stato né nazione. Italiani senza meta'', Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2010. . *''Italiani senza padri. Intervista sul

Risorgimento The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single s ...

'', Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2011. . *''E fu subito regime. Il fascismo e la marcia su Roma'', Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2012. .

References

1946 births 20th-century Italian educators 20th-century Italian essayists 20th-century Italian historians 21st-century Italian educators 21st-century Italian historians Cultural historians Historians of fascism Historians of Italy Historians of World War I Historians of World War II Living people People from the Province of Campobasso Sapienza University of Rome faculty {{Italy-historian-stub