Michael R. Ebner

• 2025 Spring
  • HST 112 Modern Europe: Napoleon to the Present
• 2024 Fall
  • HST 315 Europe in the Age of Hitler and Stalin
  • HST 401 Senior Seminar - Genocide in the Modern World
• 2024 Spring
  • HST 112 Modern Europe: Napoleon to the Present

Michael Ebner is a historian of twentieth-century Italy and Europe with particular interests in fascism, authoritarianism and political violence. His current research examines the role of violence and atrocity within the Italian fascist imperial project, focusing on Mussolini’s ‘re-conquest’ of Libya during the 1920s and early 1930s.

He recently co-edited, with Josh Arthurs and Kate Ferris, "The Politics of Everyday Life in Fascist Italy: Outside the State?" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017). The volume applies the Alltagsgeschichte (history of everyday life) approach to explore how ordinary Italians lived under fascism, challenging binary categories of conformity and opposition, acclaim and dissent, and victim and perpetrator. Ebner’s first book, "Ordinary Violence in Mussolini’s Italy" (Cambridge University Press, 2011), won the American Historical Association’s Helen and Howard R. Marraro Prize for the best book on Italian history.

"Local History Summer Camp: Doctoral Dissertation", Sponsored by National Endowment for the Humanities/Natl. Fndn. on the Arts & Humanities.

• Books
  • Outside the State?: Everyday Life in Fascist Italy. Ebner, M. R., Arthurs, J. and Ferris , K. (eds.) Palgrave-Macmillan, 2017.
  • Ebner, M. R., Ordinary Violence in Mussolini’s Italy. Cambridge University Press, 2011.
• Journal Articles
  • Ebner, M. R., "'This is the Violence of Which I Approve:’ A short history of the political violence that helped Mussolini attain power." Slate, 2017.
  • Ebner, M. R., "Dalla repressione dell'antifascismo al controllo sociale. Il confino di polizia, 1926-1943." Storia e problemi contemporanei, 2006.
  • Ebner, M. R., "The Political Police and Denunciation during Fascism: A Review of Recent Historical Literature." Journal of Modern Italian Studies, 2006.
• Book Chapters
  • Ebner, M. R., "Introduction” and “Coercion” in Outside the State?: Everyday Life in Fascist Italy. Arthurs, J., Ebner, M. R. and Ferris, K. (eds.) Palgrave-Macmillan, 2017.
  • Ebner, M. R., "Fascist Violence and the ‘Ethnic Reconstruction’ of Cyrenaica (Libya)." In Violence, Colonialism, and Empire. Dwyer, P., Ryan, L. (eds.) Palgrave-Macmillan, 2017.
  • Ebner, M. R., "Terror und Bevölkerung im italienischen Faschismus." Reichhardt, S., Nolzen, A. (eds.) Beiträge zur Geschichte des Nationalsozialismus, 2005.
  • Ebner, M. R., "The Persecution of Homosexual Men under Fascism, 1926-1943." Wilson, P. (ed.) Gender, Family, and Sexuality: The Private Sphere in Italy, 1860-1945, 2004.

New York State European History Colloquium, "Italy's Invasion and Occupation of Libya, 1911-15" (November 9, 2024)

Mount Holyoke College, Classics and Italian Department, "Mussolini’s Seizure of Power: Fascism, Violence, and Rhetoric" (October 10, 2024)

Carleton College, European Studies Program , "The Mediterranean, Migration, and Bordering Regimes" (May 19, 2021)

Carleton College, Department of History, "Fascist Italy's Conquest of Eastern Libya, 1922-1934" (May 12, 2021)

Kenyon College, Department of History, "Violence and Everyday Life in Fascist Italy" (April 2, 2021)

American Historical Association Annual Conference, "Fascist Oasis: Conquest and Atrocity in Cyrenaica, 1923-32" (January 5, 2020)

Benedict Distinguished Visiting Professor, Department of History, Carleton College (2020)

NEH Summer Stipend (2017)

2010-2011 Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Teaching Recognition Award, Syracuse University (2011)

American Historical Association’s Helen and Howard R. Marraro Prize for the best book on the history of Italy (2011)

Appleby-Mosher Faculty Research Grant, Maxwell School of Syracuse University (2011)