La Difesa della Razza (Italian: In Defence of Race) was a Fascist magazine which was published in Rome between 1938 and 1943 during the Fascist rule in Italy. Its subtitle was Scienza, Documentazione, Polemica (Italian: Science, Documentation, and Debate).[1] It played a significant role in the implementation of the racial ideology following the invasion of Ethiopia and the introduction of the racial laws in 1938.[2][3]
 A page from La Difesa della Razza | |
| Categories | Political magazine |
|---|---|
| Frequency |
|
| Founded | 1938 |
| First issue | 5 August 1938 |
| Final issue | 20 June 1943 |
| Country | Italy |
| Based in | Rome |
| Language | Italian |
| OCLC | 690960529 |
History and profile edit
La Difesa della Razza was first published on 5 August 1938.[2][4] It was established by the Office for the Racial Problems headed by Guido Landra.[5] The founding director of the magazine was Giulio Cogni, but he left the post when he recognized that his ideas about races had been used by the Fascist leaders without making any reference to him.[5] Cogni was replaced by Telesio Interlandi in the post.[3][5] Giorgio Almirante served as its editorial secretary[4] and was the assistant to Interlandi.[6] The editorial board of the magazine included leading physicians and scientists.[4] It came out biweekly,[2] but later its frequency was switched to bimonthly.[7]
La Difesa della Razza was financed by several public institutions, including the Ministry of Popular Culture, banks, industrial and insurance companies.[8] Each issue of the magazine was delivered to schools and universities across Italy.[9] It folded on 20 June 1943 after producing 118 issues.[2][10]
Ideology, content and contributors edit
The first issue of the magazine featured a manifesto, Manifesto della Razza, by the scholars which was the guiding principle of the racist ideology of Fascist Italy.[11] Following the publication of this manifesto the approach of the state towards the Italian Jews and its colonial policies changed.[11] The magazine described its goals in the first issue as follows:[11]
We will popularize, with the help of scholars of various disciplines related to the problem, the fundamental concepts upon which the doctrine of Italian racism is based; and we will prove that science is on our side.
La Difesa della Razza often featured graphics, photographs, cartoons and photomontages accompanied by offensive and vulgar captions.[1] Its headlines were mostly sensationalist.[1] The magazine was a supporter of the pseudoscience,[7] cultural racism and Italian primitivism rejecting the premises of European modernism.[3] The most frequent topic covered in the magazine was about antisemitism.[10] In May 1942 in the article by Giorgio Almirante blood was regarded as the sole evidence of Italianness which differentiated Italians from Jews and Black mixed race people.[7] Both groups were depicted in a negative manner in the magazine through photographs.[10] In 1942 and 1943 the magazine claimed that the British had a cruel attitude towards people living in its colonies.[12]
Some of its contributors were Lino Businco, Luigi Castaldi, Elio Gasteiner, Guido Landra and Marcello Ricci who were scientific figures and published articles about biological racism.[8] Guido Landra's articles were mostly concerned with hereditary diseases.[8] Ferdinando Loffreda regularly wrote articles for the magazine in which he offered his antifeminist views.[13]
Circulation edit
Shortly after its launch La Difesa della Razza sold 150,000 copies per issue.[10] However, from November 1940 its circulation significantly decreased because of the start of World War II.[10]
References edit
- ^ a b c Federica Durante; Chiara Volpato; Susan T. Fiske (2009). "Using the stereotype content model to examine group depictions in Fascism: An archival approach". European Journal of Social Psychology. 40 (3): 467. doi:10.1002/ejsp.637. PMC 3882081. PMID 24403646.
- ^ a b c d Sandro Servi (2005). "Building a Racial State: Images of the Jew in the Illustrated Fascist Magazine, La Difesa della Razza, 1938–1943". In Joshua D. Zimmerman (ed.). Jews in Italy under Fascist and Nazi Rule, 1922–1945. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 114–157. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511471063.010. ISBN 9780511471063.
- ^ a b c Mariana Aguirre (October 2015). "La Difesa Della Razza (1938–1943): Primitivism and Classicism in Fascist Italy". Politics, Religion & Ideology. 16 (4): 370–390. doi:10.1080/21567689.2015.1132412. S2CID 146984963.
- ^ a b c "The Defense of the Race magazine". Museo Ebraico. 18 July 2019. Retrieved 19 June 2022.
- ^ a b c Aaron Gillette (Winter 2002). "Guido Landra and the Office of Racial Studies in Fascist Italy". Holocaust and Genocide Studies. 16 (3): 361. doi:10.1093/hgs/16.3.357.
- ^ Aaron Gillette (2001). "The origins of the 'Manifesto of racial scientists'". Journal of Modern Italian Studies. 6 (3): 308. doi:10.1080/13545710110084253. S2CID 146603137.
- ^ a b c Angelica Pesarini (2022). ""Africa's Delivery Room": The Racialization of Italian Political Discourse on the 80th Anniversary of the Racial Laws". In Marcella Simoni; Davide Lombardo (eds.). Languages of Discrimination and Racism in Twentieth-Century Italy. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 206–207. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-98657-5_9. ISBN 978-3-030-98657-5.
- ^ a b c Francesco Cassata (2011). Building the New Man: Eugenics, Racial Science and Genetics in Twentieth-Century Italy. Budapest: Central European University Press. pp. 223–284. ISBN 9789639776838.
- ^ David I. Kertzer; Gunnar Mokosch (2020). "In the Name of the Cross: Christianity and Anti-Semitic Propaganda in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy". Comparative Studies in Society and History. 62 (3): 461. doi:10.1017/s0010417520000146. S2CID 225528189.
- ^ a b c d e Chiara Volpato; et al. (December 2010). "Picturing the Other: Targets of Delegitimization across Time". International Journal of Conflict and Violence. 4 (2): 272–276. doi:10.4119/ijcv-2831.
- ^ a b c Barbara Sòrgoni (2003). "'Defending the race': the Italian reinvention of the Hottentot Venus during Fascism". Journal of Modern Italian Studies. 8 (3): 412. doi:10.1080/09585170320000113761. S2CID 143675594.
- ^ Jacopo Pili (2021). "The Representation of British Foreign Policy". Anglophobia in Fascist Italy. Manchester: Manchester University Press. p. 37. doi:10.7765/9781526159663. ISBN 9781526159663. JSTOR j.ctv2cmrbq3.4. S2CID 247310834.
- ^ Alexander De Grand (1976). "Women under Italian Fascism". The Historical Journal. 19 (4): 966. doi:10.1017/s0018246x76000011. S2CID 159893717.
External links edit
Media related to La Difesa Della Razza at Wikimedia Commons
