BRUTAL FRIENDSHIP: Mussolini, Hitler, and the Fall of Italian Fascism

New York: Harper & Row, 1962. 896pp index. Full gray cloth; text block edges lightly toned and dusted, else very good. Pages lightly age-toned, past owner's name neatly written on top of front endpaper, else very good. No illustrations. Printed/pictorial dj; edge worn and rubbed, else good. During the 1930s, Mussolini dominated in his relationship with Hitler. But during the 1940s, the WWII years, the tables were dramatically reversed, Hitler was in the driver's seat. Militarily, the Italians were weak, and were repeatedly embarrassed: in North Africa & Greece and each time had to be rescued by Germany's war machine. The Italians could not maintain a successful campaign on their own. In the end, Mussolini was personally rescued by the Germans in 1943, and Italy became a battlefield and a puppet state. This work focuses, almost exclusively, on the 1940s political relationship between the two dictators. . First American Edition. Cloth. Very Good/Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.