Book Reviews : The Cross and the Fasces: Christian Democracy and Fascism in Italy. By RICHARD A. WEBSTER. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1960. Pp. xiii, 229. $5.00.)

• Published date: 01 December 1961
• DOI: 10.1177/106591296101400443
• Date: 01 December 1961
• Subject Matter: Articles

999

majority

of

men

are

inclined

to

be

followers

or

are

easily

induced

to

be

so.&dquo;

And

many

a

reader

may

conclude

that

something

has

either

been

omitted

or

unneces-

sarily

added

when

he

is

instructed

that

&dquo;self-knowledge

is

a

necessary

preliminary

to

self-education.&dquo;

In

short,

the

author

occasionally

does

not

supply

the

in-

formation

his

pupils

need

and

at

other

times

he

painfully

underestimates

their

intelligence.

It

goes

without

saying

that

a

curriculum

in

education

for

privacy

is

not

easy

to

prescribe.

The

prospective

student

is

here

offered

a

difficult

program

of

study

but

if

he

can

master

it,

he

will

be

well

on

his

way

toward

strength

and

independ-

ence

of

character.

The

author

is

at

his

best

in

exposing

the

too-ready

reformers,

the

&dquo;hyper-socialminded,&dquo;

and

those

who

would

gladly

and

with

the

best

inten-

tions

socially

organize

their

fellows

into

deadly

and

meaningless

conformity.

For

this

he

is

to

be

thanked

heartily.

One

may

only

wish

that

he

had

started

from

the

point

he

reaches

in

his

last

chapter.

Stanford

University

WILLIAM

CARROLL

BARK

The

Cross

and

the

Fasces:

Christian

Democracy

and

Fascism

in

Italy.

By

RICHARD

A.

WEBSTER.

(Stanford:

Stanford

University

Press,

1960.

Pp.

xiii,

229.

$5.00.)

Two-thirds

through

the

text

of

this

book

is

a

statement

that

suggests

why

political

scientists

may

wish

to

read

it.

Historian

Webster

reminds

us

that

the

new

Christian

Democratic

party

of

Italy

&dquo;did

not

spring

forth

Minerva-like

in

1943

as

a

full-blown

political

organization

with

a

clearly

defined

character

of

its

own.

It

was

a

coalition

of

young

and

old,

of

recent

converts

from

Clerico-Fas-

cism

and

ancient

foes

of

the

Regime,

of

theocrats

longing

for

the

days

of

Innocent

III

and

Boniface

VIII

and

admirers

of

French

or

American

Church-State

sep-

aratism.&dquo;

Today,

nearly

two

decades

later,

the

Christian

Democrats

still

house

under

their

banner

a

large

variety

of

leaders

and

diverse

groups.

The

merit

of

this

book

is

that

it

goes

a

long

way

toward

explaining

the

complex

background

of

Italy’s

largest

political

party.

Dividing

his

work

into

two

parts,

the

author

first

discusses

Catholic

political

movements

from

1870

to

1929,

the

year

of

the

Lateran

Pacts.

He

is

concerned

with

the

relations

between

Catholic

political

movements

and

the

Holy

See

and

with

the

role

of

these

movements

in

the

politics

of

the

Italian

State.

Faced

with

a

Vatican

prohibition

against

Catholics

voting

in

national

elections,

militant

lay-

men

waged

an

uphill

struggle

to

engage

in

popular

politics.

There

was

division

between

those

who

sought

to

form

a

Catholic

mass

party,

with

a

program

of

its

own,

and

others

who

envisaged

a

Catholic

political

organization

as

a

papal

auxil-

liary.

Popes,

too,

conceived

differently

the

possibilities

of

Catholics

in

politics;

e.g.,

Pius

X

tacitly

allowed

Catholics

to

use

the

ballot

box

in

emergency

condi-

tions,

but

Pius

XI

resented

the

political

autonomy

of

Catholics

and

struck

a

body

blow

at

the

Popular

party

in

1924.

Sometimes

the

Catholic

vote

became

a

pawn

in

the

Italian

political

game,

being

moved

by

the

Vatican

through

an

inter,