As a self-declared “anti-party,” Benito Mussolini’s Fasci Italiani di combattimento (Italian Combat Fasci or, simply, Fascists) 1 aimed to yoke growing social unrest to an unabashed nationalism, freshly stoked by the country’s victory in World War I alongside the Entente powers (Britain, France, and Russia). Many had arrived from other cities the night before, drawn to hear a charismatic young journalist, former socialist, and recent war veteran, who-with a vigor that would mark his discourses for two decades to come-duly trumpeted the ambitions of a new political movement. ONE HUNDRED years ago, on the early morning of March 23, 1919, a small crowd gathered in the Piazza San Sepolcro in Milan, a few blocks west of the Duomo.
