Cesare Pavese lived and suffered under the fascist government that ruled Italy from 1922 until the end of World War II. Fascism was an ultra-nationalist movement that arose early in the twentieth century as a response to Marxism. Marxism predicted that the working class would one day rise up in social warfare, leading to the primacy of the individual and the eventual demise of government. On the other hand, fascism presented itself as a system dependant upon government to preserve the unity of the state.

In Italy, fascism was closely linked to the political rise of one man, Benito Mussolini. Mussolini started his career as a socialist but abandoned socialism in 1914, during World War I, because he foresaw the economic problems that the war would cause that would make life more difficult for the workers. When the war ended, Mussolini started several fascist parties, but he was...