'Through the life of Mohamed Fekini, the distinguished scholar Angelo Del Boca tells the story of twentieth century Libya's trials under Ottoman and then Italian occupiers. We see the continuities of Italian colonial rule from liberalism to Fascism, but also the regime's own policies of mass violence that foreshadowed its strategies of mass repression during World War Two. Based on the diaries and letters of Mohamed Fekini, the book provides a corrective to histories of Italian colonialism told from the Western point of view. Mohamed Fekini and the Fight to Free Libya combines masterful historical reconstruction with the story of an individual life in a most skillful manner.' Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Professor, Departments of Italian Studies and History, New York University

"Read today, Del Boca's work forms the perfect intellectual backdrop to the 2011 Libyan uprising and its aftermath."

Middle East Journal