Mussolini's War: Fascist Italy from Triumph to Collapse: 1935-1943 is an accessible overview of fascist Italy's overambitious military ventures by John Gooch, a leading scholar on Italy and the two world wars. Gooch shows how Mussolini's dream of creating a new Roman Empire was doomed to fail for a variety of reasons--from poor leadership and an inadequate manufacturing base to the disastrous decision to ally with Nazi Germany. Mussolini's War is especially illuminating as a summary of the successes and failures of arguably the least of the Great Powers, whose role in World War II is often minimized or ignored by popular histories.
From the start, Gooch makes it clear that fascist Italy's territorial ambitions were at odds with the nation's capacities. While Italy's armies found early success in Ethiopia and Spain, they were unprepared for the scale and complexity of a modern world war. Mussolini's decision to ally with Nazi Germany dragged a poorly organized and underequipped military into conflict with much wealthier nations. Italy's overstretched armies were far from the only ones who suffered and died for Mussolini's dreams: Gooch explains how Italian occupations allowed devastating famine in Greece and genocide in former Yugoslavia.
Casual students of World War II might be used to narratives that present Italy as a bumbling, almost inconsequential participant. Gooch instead offers a nuanced account of overmatched and undertrained soldiers, who often fought bravely, being asked to succeed against impossible odds. Mussolini's dreams proved to be nothing more than costly delusions. --Hank Stephenson, the Sun magazine, manuscript reader