The well-known "Ciano Diaries," edited by Hugh Gibson (reviewed here in July 1946), covered the years 1939-1943. An earlier part of Ciano's diary, running from August 23, 1937, to the end of 1938, reaches the public only now, presumably because it had been seized by the Nazis and then recovered more or less fortuitously. In contrast to the impression left by the sections published in 1946, the present volume reveals Ciano's loyalty to Mussolini, his pro-German sympathies, and his eagerness to foment international trouble in characteristic Fascist style.
