Carlo Rosselli: Socialist Heretic and Antifascist Exile

Carlo Rosselli (1899-1937) was arguably the leading Italian antifascist figure of the 1930s until his assassination. Pugliese, an assistant professor of history at Hofstra University, does an excellent job of showing how Rosselli took his responsibility as a public intellectual seriously. Rosselli was among the first to organize troops supporting the Spanish Republic against Franco; the organization he founded, Justice and Liberty, stood alone in taking fascism seriously and refusing to explain the phenomenon in terms of prefascist assumptions; his major work, Liberal Socialism, rejected Marxist ""scientific socialism,"" arguing that ""Socialism, grasped in its essential aspect, is the progressive actualization of the idea of liberty and justice among men.... It is the progressive effort to ensure an equal chance of living the only life worthy of the name to all humans."" Attacked by orthodox thinkers on all sides, his ideas--mostly articulated in underground periodicals--were fresh, and were responsive to new developments. Rosselli attacked the ideological rigidity and blindness of orthodox Communists, the confusion of reformist socialists and the sterility of classical liberals who excused widespread poverty. He saw fascism as a moral sickness threatening all classes, and he aligned himself with the working class without ever romanticizing it. Pugliese provides a lucid account of political events, ideological disputes and clandestine resistance and brings the context of Rosselli's thinking to life. Illus. not seen by PW. (Dec.)