Hello, and thank you for listening to A History of World War II podcast, Episode 4,

Mussolini, Part 2.

The last episode ended with Mussolini recovering from a devastating howitzer accident.

He returned home only to find his newspaper deep in debt.

His time of fighting was over, but his struggles had just begun.

By June 1917, Mussolini was back at his desk editing a popolo d'Italia.

To raise subscriptions, as well as his name, back to the national stage, he wasted no time

and attack in the government, for its lackluster persecution of Italy's war effort.

According to Mussolini, what was needed was a total war effort from his country, remove

all frivolity, like concerts, race tracks, and coffee shops.

The people needed to be organized like soldiers, and keeping his readers in mind, he declared

that the peasants should be given land of their own.

And of course, the socialist should be shown no mercy.

With that tone set, he went on to say that the nation needed a man who could do it all,

one that loved his people, but could be violent if and when needed.

But his messages when first sending behind the editor's desk again were too extreme

for the people in general, and it's possible he overestimated his own popularity, even

though he just came home from the front wounded.

He did manage not to mention he was the man needed, but everyone knew what he meant.

But his paper did start to turn around.

Mussolini went on in this vein for a while, and some have speculated that the last year

of the war, as well as his own injuries, changed him, that it gave him an inkling of sincerity,

...