As Cruel as Anyone Else

Reveals a dark chapter in the Italian government¿s colonial history that has been largely hidden from view. ¿Between the end of the nineteenth century and over the first half of the twentieth, Italy invaded and occupied the Horn of Africa, Libya, and several other territories. Yet recognition of this history of colonial destruction, racist violence, and genocidal aerial and chemical warfare¿carried out not only during the Fascist dictatorship but also under preceding liberal governments¿has been consistently repressed beneath the myth that the Italians never truly practiced colonialism. ¿The late journalist, historian, novelist, campaigner, and former Resistance fighter Angelo Del Boca dismantles this myth. He expertly narrates episodes of state violence committed by Italians both abroad¿from Ethiopia to Slovenia, from China to Libya¿and ¿at home¿ during the civil war following Unification in the 1860s or when the anti-Fascist Resistance faced off against the Republic of Salò after 194