La difesa della razza

La difesa della razza, meaning “The Defence of Race,” was a Fascist Italian magazine published in Rome from August 1938 until June 1943. Its subtitle, Scienza, Documentazione, Polemica (“Science, Documentation, Debate”), presented the periodical as a scholarly forum, but its central function was the dissemination and popularization of the racial ideology of Fascist Italy. The magazine helped give pseudoscientific legitimacy to antisemitism, colonial racism, and the regime’s broader attempt to define Italian national identity in biological terms. The publication was established under the Office for Racial Problems, headed by Guido Landra. Giulio Cogni was its initial director, although he later left the position after objecting to the way Fascist leaders used racial ideas associated with him without acknowledging his contribution. He was replaced by Telesio Interlandi, who became the magazine’s principal director. Giorgio Almirante served as editorial secretary and assistant to Interlandi. Its editorial network included physicians, scientists, and other public intellectuals, allowing the magazine to frame political propaganda as expert knowledge. The first issue appeared on 5 August 1938 and included the Manifesto della Razza, a declaration associated with a group of scholars that became a major reference point for the regime’s racial program. The magazine’s publication coincided with the consolidation of Fascist racial policy after Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia and the introduction of the 1938 racial laws. It argued that race was a decisive category of national belonging and repeatedly presented Jews and Black people, including people of mixed ancestry, through demeaning textual and visual stereotypes. Antisemitism was one of its most frequent subjects, while colonial propaganda and attacks on alleged racial mixing were also recurring themes. The periodical used photographs, cartoons, photomontages, sensational headlines, and hostile captions to make its message accessible to a broad audience. It promoted biological racism, cultural racism, and an idealized form of Italian primitivism while rejecting aspects of European modernism. Articles by contributors such as Lino Businco, Luigi Castaldi, Elio Gasteiner, Guido Landra, Marcello Ricci, and Ferdinando Loffreda covered heredity, disease, racial classification, colonial subjects, gender, and related themes. In May 1942, an article by Giorgio Almirante treated blood as the defining evidence of Italianness and contrasted Italians with Jews and Black people of mixed ancestry. La difesa della razza was initially issued every two weeks and reportedly reached approximately 150,000 copies per issue shortly after launch. Distribution was supported by public institutions as well as banks, industrial companies, and insurance firms. Copies were supplied to schools and universities throughout Italy, extending the magazine’s influence beyond ordinary commercial readership and embedding racial propaganda in educational and cultural environments. Its circulation declined sharply after Italy entered the Second World War in 1940. The magazine ceased publication on 20 June 1943 after 118 issues, shortly before the collapse of Mussolini’s regime and the subsequent division of Italy. It is now studied as a significant primary source for the relationship between Fascist propaganda, pseudoscience, antisemitism, and the formation of Italy’s racial laws.

La difesa della razza emerged in the final phase of Fascist Italy’s transition toward an explicitly racial state. Its creation followed the invasion of Ethiopia and the regime’s increasing emphasis on colonial hierarchy, national purity, and the exclusion of groups defined as racially foreign. The periodical was founded by the Office for Racial Problems, directed by Guido Landra, and began publication in Rome on 5 August 1938. Its subtitle, Scienza, Documentazione, Polemica, deliberately associated the magazine with scientific authority and public debate, even though its editorial purpose was to defend and popularize Fascist racial doctrine. Giulio Cogni served as the founding director but soon departed after objecting to the appropriation of his racial theories by Fascist leaders without attribution. Telesio Interlandi then became director, with Giorgio Almirante working as editorial secretary and assistant. The editorial board and contributor base included physicians, scientists, and other intellectuals. This network enabled the publication to present racial hierarchy as an objective field of research rather than as a political program. Contributors discussed heredity, disease, biological classification, racial difference, colonial populations, gender, and national identity. The first issue was especially important because it included the Manifesto della Razza, a statement associated with scholars that became a doctrinal foundation for Fascist racism. The magazine helped shift public discourse toward the assumption that Jews and Black people were biologically distinct from Italians and that racial separation was necessary to preserve the nation. Its coverage frequently targeted Jews and treated antisemitism as a central element of Italian identity. Colonial subjects were represented through racialized stereotypes, while the magazine defended Italian colonial rule and criticized the alleged treatment of colonial populations by Britain during 1942 and 1943. The publication’s methods were both textual and visual. It used essays, sensational headlines, photographs, cartoons, and photomontages, often accompanied by insulting captions. These techniques made its propaganda vivid and easily reproducible. The magazine promoted biological and cultural racism, rejected the premises of European modernism, and associated Italian identity with a supposedly ancient or primitive racial essence. In May 1942, Giorgio Almirante wrote that blood was the decisive proof of Italianness, using the idea to distinguish Italians from Jews and Black people of mixed ancestry. Other contributors advanced claims about hereditary disease or expressed antifeminist views within the same racialized ideological framework. La difesa della razza was not merely a specialist journal. It was supported financially by public institutions, including the Ministry of Popular Culture, as well as banks, industrial enterprises, and insurance companies. Copies were sent to schools and universities throughout Italy. This distribution strategy gave the magazine a role in the normalization of racial categories among students, educators, and the wider public. Its reported early circulation of approximately 150,000 copies per issue indicates that it reached a substantial audience, although wartime conditions caused circulation to fall from November 1940 onward. The magazine initially appeared twice a month and later moved to a bimonthly schedule. It published 118 issues before closing on 20 June 1943. Its end came shortly before the fall of Mussolini and the political crisis that fragmented Fascist Italy. Historically, the publication is significant not because it represented an independent school of science, but because it shows how state-sponsored propaganda recruited scientific language, institutional distribution, and visual culture to support discrimination and persecution. It remains an important source for studying Fascist Italy’s racial laws, antisemitic politics, colonial ideology, and the broader history of pseudoscientific racism.

• 1943

  Closure

  [1]La Difesa della Razzaen.wikipedia.org

  The magazine ceased publication on 20 June 1943 after producing 118 issues.

• 1942

  Escalation of racial propaganda

  [1]La Difesa della Razzaen.wikipedia.org

  Articles and visual material continued to portray Jews and Black people through biological-racist stereotypes; a May article by Giorgio Almirante treated blood as the defining evidence of Italianness.

• 1940

  Wartime circulation decline

  [1]La Difesa della Razzaen.wikipedia.org

  The magazine’s circulation began to fall substantially from November 1940 after Italy’s involvement in the Second World War.

• 1938

  Launch in Rome

  [1]La Difesa della Razzaen.wikipedia.org

  The first issue was published on 5 August 1938 under the Office for Racial Problems.

• 1938

  Publication of the Manifesto della Razza

  [1]La Difesa della Razzaen.wikipedia.org

  The inaugural issue presented a racial manifesto that helped articulate the ideological and purportedly scientific basis of Fascist racial policy.

An official-aligned Fascist propaganda magazine presented as a scientific and documentary publication. Its editorial positioning sought to make biological racism, antisemitism, colonial hierarchy, and exclusionary Italian nationalism appear authoritative and intellectually legitimate.

• Fascist political and ideological magazine · 1938

  La difesa della razza print issues

  The core product was a recurring Italian-language print periodical issued first biweekly and later bimonthly. It combined political argument, purported scientific analysis, documentary material, photographs, cartoons, and photomontages. Its content promoted biological racism, antisemitism, colonial hierarchy, and exclusionary definitions of Italian identity. Copies were distributed commercially and through institutional channels, including schools and universities.

• 1938

  Dissemination of Fascist biological racism and antisemitism

  The magazine helped normalize pseudoscientific racial categories and antisemitic arguments during the introduction of Italy’s 1938 racial laws. Its use of scientific authority, institutional distribution, and demeaning imagery made it a prominent propaganda instrument of the Fascist racial state.

  Source

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• 1943

  End publicationOther

  Background

  The magazine continued to operate during the final years of Fascist rule despite declining wartime circulation.

  Action taken

  Publication ended on 20 June 1943 after 118 issues.

  Aftermath

  The closure preceded the fall of Mussolini and the subsequent political collapse and division of Fascist Italy.

  Source

• 1940

  Change in publication frequencyOther

  Background

  The magazine began as a biweekly publication and operated during a period of growing wartime disruption.

  Action taken

  Its schedule was later changed from biweekly publication to a bimonthly frequency.

  Aftermath

  Circulation also declined significantly from November 1940 as the war affected Italy.

  Source

• 1938

  Position the magazine as a scientific authority on raceStrategy

  Background

  The Fascist regime sought to popularize racial ideology and support the political shift associated with colonial racism and the 1938 racial laws.

  Action taken

  The publication adopted the subtitle Scienza, Documentazione, Polemica and recruited physicians, scientists, and intellectual contributors to present racial propaganda in scholarly form.

  Aftermath

  The magazine became an important channel for disseminating biological racism, antisemitism, and colonial racial ideology in Italy.

  Source

1. 1La Difesa della Razzaen.wikipedia.org