Despite mass involvement in creating fascism for “over twenty years,” popular support evaporated for the system as the Allied military forces liberated the Italian Peninsula. Indeed, while the beleaguered populace yearned for change from decades under totalitarian rule as war exhaustion took its toll, the only change that Italians accomplished was in the aftermath of foreign invasion. Perhaps this is entirely a matter of perceived agency. In light of liberation, the effort to reconstruct the collective memory can be interpreted as a reaction to foreign intervention in sovereign affairs. Although the national polity were supportive of this systemic change, they were denied any agency in the process―especially under the imposed condition of unconditional surrender. By recreating the emotional landscape and crafting a shared legacy of resistance against fascists and their collaborators, Italians found a way to reassert themselves into a determined political climate outside of their
Despite mass involvement in creating fascism for “over twenty years,” popular support evaporated for the system as the Allied military forces liberated the Italian Peninsula. Indeed, while the beleaguered populace yearned for change from decades under totalitarian rule as war exhaustion took its toll, the only change that Italians accomplished was in the aftermath of foreign invasion. Perhaps this is entirely a matter of perceived agency. In light of liberation, the effort to reconstruct the collective memory can be interpreted as a reaction to foreign intervention in sovereign affairs. Although the national polity were supportive of this systemic change, they were denied any agency in the process―especially under the imposed condition of unconditional surrender. By recreating the emotional landscape and crafting a shared legacy of resistance against fascists and their collaborators, Italians found a way to reassert themselves into a determined political climate outside of their