Benito Mussolini was born in Italy in 1883. He attended a boarding school ran by Salesian monks, but left for Switzerland in 1902 to avoid having to serve in the military. He began studying several different philosopher's and adopted a lot of their ideas, which turned out to be quite unfortunate. He became involved in the Socialist movement in Switzerland, before returning to Italy in 1904. He wound up becoming a member of the Italian Socialists, but they kicked him out. He also served in the Italian Royal Army from 1915-1917, with the rank of First Marshal of the Empire Corporal. He abandoned his socialist ideas in favor of fascism. A lot of his concepts were similar to the Nazi ideals, such as the desire for more space they felt they owned and a racist undercurrent. He also wanted all the credit for any type of public works, better infrastructure, productivity, and economic increase. Of course he got heavily involved in World War II, which didn't work out as well for him as he had hoped. He was dismissed from his position of power, and summarily shot with some cohorts. His body was dumped on the ground where it was spat on and abused. He was hung upside down from a gas station and stoned.

This book is important in that it is two volumes of personal memoirs of Benito Mussolini. It is interesting to see how such a notorious figure came to be, and how he developed his ideas. I knew much less about him than I did Hitler and some of the prominent Nazi figures, so this book was worth it to me. The problem was that I got tired of reading him yammering on, much like I did when I read Mein Kampf, though this was certainly more lucid. This was great for insight though.