Constructing Mussolini’s new man in Africa? Italian memories of the fascist war on Ethiopia

Memoirs written by those involved in the Ethiopian War were an important means through which the Fascist regime justified the invasion, and promoted the glory of Empire. In the post-war period, memoirs of the campaign continued to be published, and they constitute one of the rare places in which the memory of Empire was cultivated and nurtured. The writers of these texts had different views of the colonial experience, and this article aims to examine a range of these accounts in order to understand their diversity. It also suggests that this diversity is indicative of the problematic concept of 'consent' to the Fascist regime. © The Society for Italian Studies 2006.