Educational and mass market catholic publishing in Italy between the two wars

The essay explores the features and the history of the Catholic educational and mass market publishing as a militant model of religious education, which especially underwent a relevant structural and organizational development under the Fascism after the Lateran Pact. Through the analysis of sources and documents, such as the editorial lists of the publishers, the data contained in the Catholic journal «Il Ragguaglio» – which was founded in 1930 with the aim of coordinating the action and growth of Catholic publishers – but especially through the meticulous examination of the yearly directory of the Italian publications (Catalogo generale della libreria italiana) as to the period 1920-1938, the publishing houses and their production are mapped in detail, in a first categorization of the enterprises, the distribution network, the religious institutions and orders directly involved in publishing activity, the literary genres, first and new ones, and so on. The results, and the limits, of this attempt of establishing and modernizing the educational mass market Catholic publishing are analyzed. In this framework, the role played by this publishing emerges, as well as that played by the culture and the ethical-religious and educational model which were linked to it, also in relation to, and opposition to, the process of nationalization and the educational strategies for the masses instituted by the totalitarian fascist regime.