Silvio Berlusconi

- Illustrations : Non - Publisher's note : The leading commentator on contemporary Italy unravels the Berlusconi phenomenon with wit, intelligence and rigor. Silvio Berlusconi, a self-made man with a taste for luxurious living, owner of a huge television empire and, most recently, the man who likened a German MEP to a Nazi concentration-camp guard—small wonder that much of democratic Europe and America has responded with considerable dismay and disdain to his governance of Italy. Paul Ginsborg, contemporary Italy's foremost historian, explains here why we should take Berlusconi seriously. His new book combines historical narrative —Berlusconi's childhood in the dyna-mic and paternalist Milanese bourgeoisie, his strict religious schooling, a working life which has encompassed crooning, large construction projects and the creation of a commercial television empire—with careful analysis of Berlusconi's political development. While never forgetting the italianità of Berlusconi's trajectory, he argues that the Italian example is highly instructive for all modern societies. What Berlusconi represents—the relationship between the media system and politics, the nature of personal dominion at a time of crisis in representative democracy, the connection between the consumer world, families and politics, and the exploitation of the wide-open spaces left by the strategic weaknesses of modern left-wing politics—are, Ginsborg suggests, near-universal.

"[D]eserves to be read and argued over as widely as possible...." - London Review of Books, 01/06/2004 "[Ginsborg's] sober, thoughtful book will be of value not only to anyone interested in how populist politics, money and control of the mass media's reservoir of fantasy can combine to override the democratic process." - Nation, 06/21/2004