In tracing the development of industrial associations in Italy from 1906 to 1934, this study challenges traditional interpretations of the rise of fascism. Unlike other studies of industrialists and fascism that begin with the post-World War I crisis, Professor Adler reconstitutes the prior relations between industrialists and Italian liberalism, and then situates industrialists within the liberal crisis and the transition to fascism. Adler's study is theoretically informed by current interests in assessing interpretations of fascism, relating corporatism to crises in liberalism, and applying hermeneutics to historical analysis.