Dio e patria: nel pensiero dei rinnegati. New York: [n.p.], [c. 1924-1925].

This work reproduces, first, the record of a debate on March 25, 1904 (and Mussolini’s preface thereto, dated July 1904), in Lausanne (Lossana), Switzerland between the then virulently anti-clerical young socialist Mussolini, already known for his violent oratory and animal vitality, and the evangelist Taglialatella over the existence of God, in which Mussolini affirmed his belief in the absurdity of the concept of God.

The editors here note that they are republishing the record of this debate twenty years later — after Mussolini became Italy’s prime minister, but probably before he became “Il Duce” in 1925 — to reflect a favorite radical theme about the once anti-clerical Mussolini: that in consolidating his power and distancing himself from his early socialist and anti-clerical roots, he embraced the Church and capitalism, and in so doing became a “voltagabbana” (turncoat) to his origins. See also reference to Paolo Valera's Mussolini, to the same effect, in description of his Il fascismo.

The second essay recounts a religious debate between Tancredi and a priest in Providence, R.I., on December 11, 1910, subsequent to the first edition. See Antinatale (New York, 1910]for another work in the Collection by Tancredi. The third is a translation of a French political philosopher’s argument about the “lies” of patriotism.

It was at the time and place of the 1904 debate that Carlo Tresca met Mussolini, who chided the older Tresca for “not being revolutionary” enough, according to Tresca in his autobiography. It is difficult to imagine anything more ironic, given their later histories, than that Mussolini could have said at any time that Tresca “was not sufficiently imbued with the spirit of revolt.” 

This undated work calls itself a “second edition” at “the distance of twenty years” from its first appearance in print. Indeed, it would have been virtually impossible to print or publish it in Italy, if it was in fact 1924, for by that time, Mussolini had managed to pass legislation to gag the press.