MUSSOLINI

The Mussolini who emerges from Denis Mack Smith''s outstanding political biography is the supreme opportunist, more actor than statesman, with policies shaped chiefly by events. Hence the emphasis on appearance, the Napoleonic posturing, the monumental vanity. In the end Mussolini probably came to believe his own propaganda - that he was an infallible man of destiny, though his programme consisted of little more than aggression overseas, while at home he suppressed individual freedom and aped Hitler''s racial laws. Mack Smith''s compelling narrative follows this destiny to its infamous conclusion: the collapse of Mussolini''s nation, and the destruction of its leader. ''The particular merit of Mack Smith''s Mussolini is that it reveals his extraordinary bloodthirstiness as a war leader, combined with an equally extraordinary incompetence in the same role...one of the most severe indictments of Mussolini ever penned'' Sunday Times