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The task requires a collective and collaborative effort built on the knowledge of the historiography of both countries—Italy and the U.S. Moreover, it must be integrated with and corroborated by a patient and systematic consultation of documents and sources still buried in the archives of Italy, the United States, and other countries such as England and France, through which Italian émigrés and fuorusciti (political exiles) journeyed on their way to the United States.
Linguistic skills will give researchers not only first hand access to sources still hidden in public and private archives but also an understanding of linguistic sfumature (nuances). The historian’s mission remains to discover the truth, free from manipulation, interposition, ideological or national bias, and sanitation.
Fascism scholars must consider all contributions toward research, however small, seemingly irrelevant, dated, or updated. Interpretations and conclusions deserve respect notwithstanding historical and critical analysis.
The present generation of scholars tends to emphasize an interdisciplinary approach and analysis of historical events. The new trend of scholarship appears to move in the direction of multidimensionalism. In the age of globalization historians tend to adopt the method of total integration whereby neither limits nor frontiers exist. Surely, this approach will provide extra dimensions to the historical process and help those who will write the definitive history of Fascism and anti Fascism in the United States. They must, however, apply what the late Renzo De Felice used to call la misura della storia (historical balance).
In the summer of 1968, I began research in the Archivio Centrale dello Stato di Roma, Italy, with the assistance of Dr. Guido Guerra. That documentary evidence led to the essay, “L’Immigration Quota Act del 1921, La Crisi del Sistema Liberale e l’Avvento del Fascismo in Italia,” delivered at the III Symposium Di Studi Americani (May 27–29, 1968), sponsored by the Istituto di Studi Americani of the Universita’ di Studi di Firenze.