EDUCATION IN FASCIST ITALY L. MINIO PALUELLO With a Foreword by SIR W. D. ROSS FOREWORD WHILE the Fascist regime still existed in Italy, many English people were puzzled to know what degree of reality lay behind the ambitious projects and promises of the Fascist leaders. Mr. MinioPaluellos book presents English readers with a very thorough and interesting account of what Mussolini himself called the most Fascist of all Fascist reformsthe reform of education. In order to understand the Fascist reforms, it is necessary to understand the educational system which they were intended to remould in the interests of the imperial destiny of Italy, and of the spirit which was to bring that about. Accordingly the first Part of the book gives an account of the history of Italian education from the Risorgi mento to the dawn of the Fascist regime, starting with the Lex Casati of 1859 which established the general framework of Italian education, and describing the minor changes effected by later Ministers of Education. The second Part describes the early Fascist reform carried out by Gentile in 1923, that strange combination of genuine idealism and humanism with a cloudy and bombastic philosophy. The third Part deals with the series of changes aimed at rendering education more completely Fascistic, but having as their main features growing interference with the liberty of teachers and growing unsettlement of the lives of their pupils. The fourth Part deals with Bottais School Charter of 1939 modelled on his own Carta delLavoro of 1927, which established Italian education in the form which it retained until the fall of the Fascist regime. Mr. MinioPaluello is not only an accomplished scholar he had the disadvantage as a student, and hasnow the advantage as an historian, of having lived through many years of the Fascist system. He is able to tell us not only what the various reforms were intended to bring about, and to give a clear account of the successive administrative arrangements and the successive curricula, but also how they worked in practice. The general upshot seems to be that many of the changes that were intended remained dead letters that the only part of the system that was completely Fascistized was elementary education that higher, and in particular academic, education retained a good deal of real independence, masked of course in many cases by a nominal adherence to Fascist ideals. His book gives some ground for the view that Fascism did not penetrate very deeply into the spirit of the Italian people, and for the hope that the awakening from the evil dream of imperialism may not be a very long or difficult process when once the Fascist leaders have been removed from power throughout Italy, and the scholars who were driven into exile or silenced have taken up the task of rebuilding Italian education on sounder foundations. W. D.