Women in Italy, 1945–1960: An interdisciplinary study, edited by Penelope Morris, New York/Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, 246 pp., £40.00 (hardback), ISBN 1 4039 7099 8

Abstract

Talbot depicts Gentile's ambition to have a list of prescribed texts for classroom as a basically technocratic design, which later became a Trojan horse for fascistising ambitions. Not for the last time, Talbot demonstrates fascist officials'-and his own-appreciation of the economics of publishing in Italy's limited market for printed material: one of Gentile's successors made the textbook commission set up by Gentile give him a list of books likely to be approved given certain revisions, and attempted to 'ensure a reasonable distribution of the spoils between the large publishing houses' (pp. 62-3). Chapter 6, though it also deals with low culture and includes a fascinating vignette about Angelo Cecchelin, addresses certain authors whose works were marginal, such as Henry Furst (also described in Talbot 2004, 2005). Chapter 4, which deals with journalism, is perhaps closest to our current understanding of censorship, and includes some wonderful examples of veline, which point out the contradictions in the regime's policy, such as this gem from 1934: '[Count Ciano] then said that not all newspapers should carry the same editorial at the same time so as not to give the impression that the Italian press was subject to government command'' (p. 86). In dealing with preventive, informative and productive censorship, Talbot widens his scope perhaps beyond what one might expect: our contemporary understanding of censorship concentrates almost exclusively on the first of these phenomena. Talbot is aware of the contradictions inherent in this extended understanding of censorship. He notes that telephonists monitoring calls were also empowered to break the connection (p. 26), but the act of breaking the connection, whilst ably abetting the aim of preventing exchange of information, at the same time reduces the scope for further informative censorship. The 'state's collection, prevention and production of individual and mass messages' would therefore have been a more descriptive-if less concise-title for a book dealing with such a 'mercurial' concept.