In today’s bonus episode, we’re digging into the controversy over Italy’s new neo-fascist prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, and the far-right Tolkien-obsessed cultural movement that helped spawn her. From the Hobbit camps in the muddy fields of Italy to the violent football hooligans stomping the streets of Leeds, neo-fascist culture found fertile soil across Europe in the 1970s and 80s and helped radicalize a generation of young extremists.

We’ll also explain just what we mean by “fascist” and “neo-fascist”—terms you’ll be hearing on this podcast with great frequency in the coming weeks.

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Notes

Atlas Obscura. “How ‘Hobbit Camps Rebirthed Italian Fascism.’” John Last, 3 October 2017.

Fair Observer. “Of Hobbits and Tigers: The Unlikely Heroes of Italy’s Radical Right.” Tobias Hof, 23 Dec. 2020.

New York Times. “Hobbits and the Hard Right: How Fantasy Inspires Italy’s Potential New Leader.” Jason Horowitz, 21 Sept. 2022.

Atlantic. “The Return of Fascism in Italy.” Ruth Ben-Ghiat, 23 Sept. 2022.

Further Reading

Strong Men: Mussolini to the Present. Ruth Ben-Ghiat, W. W. Norton, 2020.

The Nature of Fascism. Roger Griffin, Routledge, 1993.

Music, Youth and International Links in Post-War British Fascism: The Transformation of Extremism. Ryan Shaffer, Palgrave, 2017.