Thank you to /u/400-Rabbits for having me on, I had a great time and he did an amazing job at leading me through my own meandering thoughts!

A bit about myself: I am currently attending university where I am focusing on Modern Europe and economics, specifically Italy. My background before returning to school consisted of years of governmental application (re: military) and sales - which may be slightly to blame for why I give great politician answers in conversation. I also am a Manchester United supporter, and Roma muppet.

I apologize for my voice during this episode as I was fighting a minor cold and doing my best to avoid accent drift. I did my best in this episode to refer to cities in the language I was speaking because otherwise it can get messy - I take my queue from Kershaw's writing on this.

As mentioned by /u/400-Rabbits in his intro, the dedicated academic literature on calcio in English can be lacking, but you can pull the nascent threads together from many sources. I put this bibliography together for both my sources, and if you're interested in this subject where you can start!

Further reading on the history of calcio and sport in Italy:

• De Grazia, Victoria. The culture of consent: mass organisation of leisure in fascist Italy. Cambridge University Press, 2002.
• Foot, John. Calcio. A history of Italian football. HarperPerennial, 2007.
• Martin, Simon. Football and Fascism: The national game under Mussolini. Oxford: Berg, 2004.

De Grazia's book is one of the best studies you will find on Fascism and sporting in general and dedicates itself towards the how and the why behind what the Fascists were attempting to do with the populace. Foot's Calcio is one of the most well known English language books on the entire history of the game - even if it's development under Fascism is willingly left to others to pick up. Martin's work is one of the best dedicated studies on the entirety of the game under the Fascists - including delving into the architectural wars the Fascists were having within the party.

Further reading on life under Fascism:

• Ben-Ghiat, Ruth. Fascist Modernities: Italy, 1922-1945. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001.
• Bosworth, R. J. B. Mussolini's Italy: Life under the Dictatorship, 1915-1945. New York: Penguin Books, 2006.

Ben-Ghiat's work looks at how the Fascists attempted to portray what modern Italy was or at least what they wanted Fascism to be. Bosworth's work is second to none (in my opinion) in starkly tearing through Fascist post-war apologia and anti-anti-fascism work in glorifying what life under the dictatorship was.

Further reading on the peculiarities of Italy:

• Agnew, Paddy. Forza Italia: The Fall and Rise of Italian Football. London: Ebury, 2007.
• Foot, John. Modern Italy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
• Foot, John. Italy's Divided Memory. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

Agnew's work is a great first hand, pop history account of the rise of the game through the 1980s and the 2006 World Cup triumph. Foot's works I really present in comparison with each other, as Modern Italy is at it's heart a text book that delves into the social history of the nation, while Divided Memory explores the myths that Italians have created for themselves. Both are amazing reads that let you get a great handle on the peculiar nature of the nation.

So I've been eagerly anticipating this episode, and I'm sure I'll have more questions once I listen to it, but since u/Sunshine_Bag is an expert on Fascism and Football, right off the bat I'd like to ask something I've always wondered: why do so many SS Lazio fans identify as Fascist, even though AS Roma was expressly created by the Fascist regime to give Rome a competitive Football team? It's always baffled me.

It's time once again for the AskHistorians Book Giveaway! Our lucky winner this month is Trevor Davis! The selection of books we have available this month are:

• The Allure of the Archives by Arlette Farge, recommended by /u/caffarelli.

• The culture of consent: mass organisation of leisure in fascist Italy by Victoria DeGrazia, recommend by /u/sunshine_bag.

• Fit to Be Citizens?: Public Health and Race in Los Angeles, 1879-1939 by Natalie Molina, recommended by /u/cordis_melum.

• And my own suggestion this month, The Plague Files: Crisis Management in Sixteenth-Century Seville by Alexandra Parma Cook & Noble David Cook.

Want a chance to get a free book? Help support the podcast via Patreon!

Ah! Looking forward to this! The previous chapter on Milan (AskHistorians Podcast 069 - Milan in the Era of Communal Italy) was very interesting, so it will be great to hear the rest of the story unfold. Thanks /u/Sunshine_Bag and as always /u/400_Rabbits!

Thank you for yet another wonderful podcast!

As a minor piece of feedback, I was wondering how long ago we recorded the opening and closing sequences. The latter mentions asking "over 100" historians and experts questions about history - and I can't help but think that we may have grown slightly! :P

Special thanks to /u/40kfreak, Eric Hacke, Will Raybould, Elm, Jonathan Wallace, Charles-Eric Lemelin, Andrew Stead, William Ryan, Stuart Gorman, Daniel Schmidt, Bill Rubin, Sarah Gilbert, Mark Katerberg, Vlad, and Max M. for their generous support of the podcast through the AskHistorians Patreon. And thanks to all our new supporters as well!

And a big big thanks to /u/sunshine_bag for moving this topic downfield and not forcing me to drink castor oil.

Small question related to fascism in Italy...did the rise of fascism have any impact in the industrialization of Italy? They seemed to be behind the rest of the world and I am just wondering if Fascism had any hand in sort of jump-starting the process.