Christopher Duggan's new history of fascist Italy explores how the movement became embodied in the person of Benito Mussolini who occupied for many an almost divine status and gave millions of men and women a sense of pride and hope, offering the prospect of national regeneration after decades of disappointment.

A work of exceptional authority and originality, Fascist Voices makes use of rarely examined sources - letters and private diaries, newspaper reports and secret police files - to uncover how ordinary people experienced fascism on a daily basis and how its ideology influenced their beliefs, values, language and lifestyle.

Tracing fascism from its conception to its legacy, Christopher Duggan unpicks why the regime enjoyed so much support among the majority of the Italian population. He examines the extraordinary personal relationships that millions of Italians had with Mussolini, explores the religious dimensions of totalitarianism, and discusses why the 'cult of the Duce' still resonates in contemporary Italy.

Fascist Voices is a fresh and disturbing look at a country in thrall to a charismatic dictator.

WOLFSON HISTORY PRIZE 2013

Christopher Duggan for Fascist Voices: An Intimate History of Mussolini's Italy (Random House). This new history of fascist Italy uncovers ordinary people's daily experience of fascism, including its influence on their beliefs and values. History Prize judge Professor Sir Richard Evans described it as a book which "uses new sources ... to chart the changing views Italians held of their leader. What comes across is not only the popularity of many of his actions, notably the invasion and conquest of Abyssinia, but also the extent to which he kept down dissent and opposition by means of a vast apparatus of surveillance and repression ... It illuminates Mussolini's relationship with the Italian people to a degree that has never been done before, and with a style and flair that makes for a book that is compulsively readable as well as scholarly and persuasive."

The Judges for the prize were Sir Keith Thomas (Chairman), Professor Sir David Cannadine, Professor Sir Richard Evans and Professor Julia Smith.

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