Join host David Hartmann and fellow Columbia alumni as the book club discusses The Perfect Fascist by Columbia University professor Victoria de Grazia.

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.

"[A] fascinating book on the Fascist years, and particularly its social mores…Teruzzi was indeed the perfect Fascist: disciplined, unscrupulous, brutish, fanatically loyal to Mussolini… The brilliance of de Grazia’s book lies in the way that she has made a page-turner of Teruzzi’s chaotic life, while providing a scholarly and engrossing portrait of the two decades of Fascist rule." —Caroline Moorhead, Wall Street Journal

Date: Thursday, November 7, 2024

Times: 6:30PM Central, 7:30PM Eastern, 4:30PM Pacific. For those in our international community the book club starts at 12:30AM London time on November 8.

Location: Zoom Video Conference

Cost: Free