As Cruel as Anyone Else: Episodes from the Italian Empire

Reveals a dark chapter in the Italian government’s colonial history that has been largely hidden from view.

Between the end of the nineteenth century and over the first half of the twentieth, Italy invaded and occupied the Horn of Africa, Libya, and several other territories. Yet recognition of this history of colonial destruction, racist violence, and genocidal aerial and chemical warfare--carried out not only during the Fascist dictatorship but also under preceding liberal governments--has been consistently repressed beneath the myth that the Italians never truly practiced colonialism.

The late journalist, historian, novelist, campaigner, and former Resistance fighter Angelo Del Boca dismantles this myth. He expertly narrates episodes of state violence committed by Italians both abroad--from Ethiopia to Slovenia, from China to Libya--and ＂at home＂ during the civil war following Unification in the 1860s or when the anti-Fascist Resistance faced off against the Republic of Salò after 1943. Attentive to the losses and pain suffered by all sides in war, Del Boca deftly demonstrates how such violence was not only a tool of domination but has also been central to creating and shaping an Italian ＂people.＂

Drawing on a lifetime of interviews as a special correspondent, decades of work in private and state archives, and his own experiences during the Second World War, Del Boca’s popular and influential work has contributed to overturning views of Italian history. Presenting many historical episodes in English for the first time, As Cruel as Anyone Else provides a key to reading contemporary Italy, its place in international politics, and the disturbing permanence of the far-right within mainstream Italian politics.

Angelo Del Boca (1925-2021) was a foundational historian of Italian colonialism whose four-volume The Italians in East Africa remains a central resource for scholars. He was the author of dozens of books, including histories, journalistic inquiries, interviews, short stories, and memoirs. Richard Braude is a translator and writer living in Palermo, Italy.