“A realist who seems to know what he is about”. Albert Keller, Benito Mussolini, and a Story to be Told

Abstract

Mussolini’s dictatorship arouse admiration in America, especially among the anti-New Dealers. Albert G. Keller was among these estimators and expressed his sympathies for Mussolini on more than one occasion. The aim of this brief note is twofold. On the one hand, it is mostly documentary – i.e., to make available two texts, one unpublished and the other merely difficult to find, which shed new light on Keller’s political views and especially his fascination with Mussolini. These documents will provide a new piece to the complex historiographic puzzle which is the reception of Mussolini’s fascism in the Us. On the other hand, this introduction will go beyond the Keller-Mussolini connection. We provide a sketch of the main coordinates of Keller’s intellectual career before discussing, in some detail, his later political stance – including his ‘radical’ criticism of the New Deal. Although Keller is the main protagonist of our story, his son Deane will also play a role in this story to be told.