Emilio Gentile is Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Rome La Sapienza. His books include The Sacralization of Politics in Fascist Italy; The Struggle for Modernity: Nationalism, Futurism, and Fascism; The Origin of Fascist Ideology; and The Italian Road to Totalitarianism: The Party and the State in the Fascist Regime (forthcoming). In 2003 he was awarded the Hans Sigrist Prize by the University of Bern for his studies on political religions.