The life and work of Benito Mussolini

Benito Mussolini was both better and far worse than the vaguely comic image that is, in part, his legacy.

Far from being a Hitler understudy, Mussolini himself was the creator of fascism, one of the two extreme ideological forces (the other being Communism) that between them seduced, subjugated and destroyed so much of the world in the 20th century.As facism's architect, Mussolini shaped - however grotesquely - the destiny of millions.

For this reason alone, Mussolini's was a "Critical Life".