This is the first English language history of Italian Socialism. It is based on extensive interviews with prominent Italian and American political personalities as well as on thorough archival research.

The first comprehensive history of Italian Socialism in English, this book ranges from the defeat of Socialism by Mussolini in 1926 to its resurgence as a powerful force in Italian politics today. Di Scala has not only combed the archives of Italy and America, but also interviewed an array of prominent Italian and American sources, providing testimonies that are themselves likely to become important historical documents. His sweeping, intensive survey sheds new light on important Socialists such as Rodolfo Morandi and Pietro Nenni, and highlights the tremendous accomplishments of Italy's first Socialist prime minister, Bettino Craxi. Di Scala demonstrates that through a remarkable intellectual and political revival, the Socialists overcame their subjection by the Communists and Christian Democrats and went on to radically transform the politics, economy, and international affairs of modern Italy.

`Spencer Di Scala, the author of a fine study of Filippo Turati, Dilemmas of Italian Socialism, has now written an equally good history of the post-1945 Italian Socialist party (PSI) ... The result is a provocative, well-researched history of the PSI, based on a combination of archival work, interviews with major protagonists, and a comprehensive survey of socialist periodicals and secondary sources ... it is a tribute to the author's scholarship and objectivity that, despite his ultimately favourable judgement of Craxi, the reader has ample material from which to draw quite different conclusions about the new PSI.' Journal of European Economic History