«Libro e moschetto fascista perfetto»Book and musket, the perfect Fascist: the Standard Textbook season in Italy (1929-1945)

During the 1930-31 school year the standard textbook (Libro unico di Stato) was introduced in all of the primary schools in the Italian Kingdom. This was a period in which the Fascist regime intended to develop the organization of consent in order to impose methodically the Fascist order on the whole of Italia society. In this context the standard textbook represents much more than a simple didactic instrument: it is an explicit political tool. The regime intended it to mould the New Fascist Man: “libro e moschetto fascista perfetto” which was a famous slogan of the Regime. From this point of view, the Standard textbook often assumed the form of a distorted looking-glass of the identity dynamics pursued by that particular institution which is the fascist State-Party. In actual fact, the standard textbook is not only a mirror of society, but also an icon of the fascist educational system and, furthermore, an icon of the fascist State-Party, the institution that gave standard text-book their raison d’être. My paper analyses the genesis of the standard textbook and points out the ways and the specific characteristics whereby it was brought to fruition. In particular, I shall refer to the dynamics underlying the realisation of the historical section.