Italy Reborn

Between 1943, when Mussolini was deposed, and 1954, when Alcide De Gasperi, the Christian Democrat who first became premier in December 1945, died, Italy constructed a democratic miracle. Rather than collapse into civil war, the country agreed on a democratic constitution. They took steps toward modernization and created one of the most intellectually vital societies in the world. Italy transformed, in only a decade, from a divided country reeling from Fascism into a modern Western democracy.