The Perfect Fascist : The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press : 9780674271067 : 0674271068 : 25 Mar 2022 : A New Statesman Book of the Year Winner of the Helen and Howard R. Marraro Prize Winner of the Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Italian Studies ?Extraordinary?I could not put it down.? ?Margaret MacMillan ?Reveals how ideology corrupts the truth, how untrammeled ambition destroys the soul, and how the vanity of white male supremacy distorts emotion, making even love a matter of state.? ?Sonia Purnell, author of A Woman of No Importance When Attilio Teruzzi, a decorated military officer and early convert to the Fascist cause, married a rising American opera star, his good fortune seemed settled. The wedding was blessed by Mussolini himself. Yet only three years later, Teruzzi, now commander of the Black Shirts, renounced his wife. Lilliana was Jewish, and fascist Italy would soon introduce its first race laws. The Perfect Fascist pivots from the intimate story of a tem