The last days of Mussolini

This book, while presenting a great deal of information on Benito Mussolini, in our time, as well as in his own, simultaneously the most loved and hated man in the whole of Italian history, is far too jaundiced in its view of the Italian dictator, presenting, if only partially, an image easily dispelled by previous biographers Luigi Villari ("Italian Foreign Policy Under Mussolini"), Anthony James Joes ("Mussolini"), and, especially, Nicholas Farrell ("Mussolini: A New Life"). Villari's and Farrell's books are the ones to read, but Moseley's study is worth buying for those portions that agree with the earlier works, for its myth-breaking view of Field Marshal Rodolfo Graziani, Mussolini's leading general as a highly-competent, no-nonsense leader and of the Italian fighting man as a most efficient and valorous soldier who, despite deficiencies in training, equipment, and even lodgings, was more than a match for his Allied and partisan foemen, for those sections depicting Mussolini as a man determined to do right for his country and people who was often let down by his subordinates--and, often, even his family--and for its synoptic accounts of the fates of those of Mussolini's subordinates and enemies alike who survived the war.

The book keeps a balanced point of view of the events and its perspective in HistoryI couldn't put the book down until the end, so the author narration was good enough to keep the reader's interest all along. A few paragraphs were a bit misleading, calling attention to something that was explained some paragraphs bellow, which, I think, should be avoided.

The Last Days of Mussolini is an informative and well documented piece of history. Ray Moseley's book is well worth reading for anyone fascinated with the fate of Il Duce.