On June 2, 2025, Professor Giuseppe Parlato, Emeritus of Contemporary History at the University of International Studies of Rome and a passionate scholar of the history of the Adriatic border, passed away.

His book is published posthumously on this first anniversary of his death by Edizioni Cantagalli D'Annunzio: A legend for the right? Edited by Simonetta Bartolini and Andrea Ungari. These pages, the latest in the tireless research of historian Giuseppe Parlato, not only provide a unique contribution to right-wing culture, but also demonstrate how d'Annunzio was unfit for inclusion in any political party, so complex was his literary, artistic, and even political profile. Neither fascist nor anti-fascist, simply D'Annunzio-like, with all the brilliance and contradictions of his behavior and thought.

The volume retraces the period from 1945 to the end of the century, highlighting the relationship between the myth of the Poet and the Italian right.

First, it refutes the common belief that fascism always considered d'Annunzio a figure of strong cultural influence. In reality, some elements of fascism could not stand him: the "strapaesani," generally Catholic, detested him; the young members of the GUF (Fascist University Groups) in the final years of the regime considered him a rhetorician without a following; conservatives criticized his openings to the left during the Fiume Regency. Only the Social Republic used him as a last resort.

After the war, the right was divided between those who remembered him as a fighter in the First World War, those who considered only the Fiume Constitution valid and those who, finally, did not consider him culturally suitable to represent the traditionalist and Evolian right.

After the 1960s, D'Annunzio was also historicized by the right, who essentially drew from the figure of the Poet the link with Nietzsche, in the guise of a "hero", but almost completely ignoring his literary work.

The volume also addresses the completely unpublished issue of the Vittoriale, which between 1945 and 1960 became a burning political issue, being presided over, at that time, by an anti-fascist, anti-D'Annunzio and Jewish intellectual: Eucardio Momigliano.

Giuseppe Parlato, D'Annunzio: A Myth for the Right?, Cantagalli, Siena 2026, 320 pp.

Giuseppe Parlato (1952-2025), historian and university professor, among the most authoritative Italian scholars of contemporary history. Professor Emeritus of Contemporary History at the University of International Studies in Rome, of which he was president and rector. Since 2008, he has been president of the Ugo Spirito and Renzo De Felice Foundation. He has studied the history of the Risorgimento, the history of the Catholic movement between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, fascist trade unionism, D'Annunzio's views, nationalism, the post-World War II Italian right, and events related to the eastern Italian territories (Istria, Fiume, and Dalmatia) in the twentieth century. A student of Renzo De Felice, he has also taught university courses at Sapienza, Luiss, and Camerino. Among his numerous publications:

The Fascist Left: The Story of a Failed Project (The Mill 2000); Mussolini, A Biography in Pictures (Gribaudo 2001); Fascists Without Mussolini: The Origins of Neo-Fascism in Italy 1943-1948 (The Mill 2006); Half a Century of Fiume. Society and Economy in Fiume in the First Half of the Twentieth Century (Cantagalli 2009); The Italians Who Made Italy. 151 Characters for the Unification of Italy (Rai Eri 2011); edited the volume Renzo De Felice. Journalistic Writings in 3 volumes (Monday 2016-2019).