Following on from "The Unification of Italy", another title in the "Access to History" series, this book provides an accessible narrative account of the emergence of the modern Italian state, the Liberal Monarchy 1870-1915, the rise of fascism, the nature of Mussolini's regime until its fall in 1945 and the post war period. As well as giving an analysis and histographical interpretation of domsestic and foreign policies, a comparison is drawn with developments in Nazi Germany and Franco's Spain.