Cesare Mori’s anti‑mafia legacy re‑examined in new Italian scholarly volume

A new two‑part volume, *I molti volti del fascismo*, edited by Giustina Manica and published by Edizioni Polistampa, investigates the relationship between the Italian mafia and the Fascist regime. While the regime celebrated Cesare Mori as the “prefect of iron,” the research shows that organised crime survived, adapted and continued to wield influence throughout the 1930s and early 1940s. The book draws on archival documentation that reveals inter‑provincial criminal networks, feuds, oaths of silence and collusion with affluent and powerful circles even after Mori’s arrests, orders and agricultural controls.

The study traces events from the Aventine secession of 27 June 1924 through the murder of Giacomo Matteotti to the fall of Fascism on 25 July 1943, incorporating contributions from a wide panel of historians and scholars. Produced with the support of the Fondazione Biblioteche Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze, the volume adds a nuanced perspective to the historiography of Mussolini’s Italy, challenging the popular myth of Mori’s total eradication of mafia power.