Emilio Gentile (born 1946, in Bojano) 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". Professo ...

, specializing in the

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

ideology An ideology is a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely epistemic, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones." Formerly applied pri ...

, and culture of Italian fascism. Gentile is considered one of Italy's foremost cultural historians 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 system ...

. 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 Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

in the essay ''Politics as Religion'' (2006) regarding the sacralization of politics in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. In 2003, Gentile was awarded the

Hans Sigrist Prize The Hans Sigrist Prize is awarded by the Hans Sigrist Foundation, at the University of Bern in Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other fe ...

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 retir ...

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 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 ...

'', 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