Giuseppe Bottai

Giuseppe Bottai (3 September 1895 – 9 January 1959) was an Italian lawyer, economist, journalist, and member of the National Fascist Party of Benito Mussolini.

Fascism

Born in Rome, he served as a volunteer in World War I, and met Mussolini in 1919, helping him establish the Fasci in Rome, and later becoming editor of Il Popolo d'Italia's Roman edition. A law graduate, he sat in the Italian Chamber of Deputies after 1921. Bottai was active in the October 1922 March on Rome that brought the fascists to power, being responsible for the violent actions of the Blackshirts under his command (who killed several persons as the March met with protests).

In 1923, Bottai founded the Critica fascista magazine, and in 1926-1929 was deputy secretary of the Corporations (the reshaped Chamber of Deputies under Mussolini's command), issuing the Carta del Lavoro legislation.

After the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, Bottai was also the first Italian Governor of Addis Ababa for twenty-two days (between 5 and 27 May 1936). He was Italy's minister of Education 1936-1943, the editor of several journals, and the Mayor of Rome, initiating a number of anti-democratic and anti-semitic measures. Bottai also ordered Jewish teachers and students removed from Italy's schools and universities.