SOURCE: Baldassaro, Lawrence. “Paura della libertà: Carlo Levi's Unfinished Preface.” Italica 72, no. 2 (summer 1995): 143-54.

In the following essay, Baldassaro offers an overview of Paura della libertà, perceiving it as “a watershed moment” in his literary development.

Long before the Resistance movement evolved into the armed rebellion depicted in neorealist films, Carlo Levi was one of that handful of Italians who challenged the fascist regime armed only with the words they printed in clandestine newspapers and magazines. Levi was only twenty years old when, in 1922, he began his anti-fascist activities by contributing to Piero Gobetti's weekly review, La Rivoluzione liberale. Later he played a key role in Giustizia e Libertà, the underground political movement that was a major force in the struggle against fascism in the thirties.¹ Levi was twice imprisoned for his anti-fascist activities, first in 1934, then again in 1935. It was this second arrest that resulted in his...