“Gli italiani sanno morire”. Una collana storica per le guerre del fascismo

«Italians know how to die»: a Historical Book Series for the wars of Fascism The article focuses on The Iron Centuria, a historical book series published by Oberdan Zucchi in Milan between 1935 and 1942. Through text-book cases of the culture militarization in the Thirties, the series aspired to be an quick and easy historical reference that contributes to the legitimization of Italy’s Fascist wars. A hundred short biographies, each chosen for its voice and ideological content, were grouped together in ten “squadrons” in order to demonstrate that Fascism was the culmination of a secular development and the affirmation of Italian patriotism. From the Risorgimento to the Great War, these one hundred “precursors” were introduced in terms of military virtue, sense of the State, heroism, vocation to the martyrdom, and ingeniousness in the field of the science, art and literature. Inserted in the context of the various expressions of culture and popular propaganda, The Iron Centuria became a precious reference for the exploration of lexical codes, themes and ways of communications of the relationship with the past and of the historical “common sense” during a crucial phase of the fascist regime.