BJG

I am pleased to announce that Where Monsters Are Born: Documenting a Fascist Revival in the Streets of Rome, 2018-2019, which I co-edited with Dr. Amy King, has been reviewed in both the July 2025 issue of Fascism: Journal of Comparative Fascist Studies and the November 2025 issue of The Public Historian.

Below are excerpts from both reviews, along with the URLs where you can read them.

Johnson, Bethan. Review of 'Where Monsters Are Born: Documenting a Fascist Revival in the Streets of Rome, 2018-2019.' Fascism: Journal of Comparative Fascist Studies 14:1 (July 2025): 176-179.

Perhaps fitting given its name, ‘Where Monsters Are Born’ is a historical project that stands on the shoulders of Italian intellectual giants [...]. In fact, ‘Where Monsters Are Born’ is a project replete with contradictions and counterintuitive interventions, to the advantage of all who engage with it. Comprised of some thirty-five posters, seven stickers, two handbills, and one banner created by neo-fascists as well as anti-fascists taken down from the streets of Rome during the better part of one year—October 2018 to July 2019—‘Where Monsters are Born’ simultaneously disturbs and yet preserves the efforts of Italian neo-fascist organising.

Ross, Alexander Reid. Review of 'Where Monsters Are Born: Documenting a Fascist Revival in the Streets of Rome, 2018-2019.' The Public Historian 47:4 (November 2025): 223-225.

Mapped together using interesting keywords and cross-links, the images collected by Where Monsters Are Born contain synopses that explain the esoteric figures and references, providing additional figures that allow easy comparisons to similar thematic illustrations posted to social media. The project, as a whole, offers a brilliant study of “the commemorative practices of Italy’s neo-fascist community,” and the way such mythologizing provides the groundwork for present organizing by a variety of interconnected groups and parties.