Silvio Berlusconi, a self-made man with a taste for luxurious living, owner of a huge television empire and the politician who likened a German MEP to a Nazi concentration camp guardsmall wonder that much of democratic Europe and America has responded with considerable dismay and disdain to his governance of Italy.<br/><br/>Paul Ginsborg, contemporary Italy's foremost historian, combines historical narrativeBerlusconi's childhood in the dynamic and paternalist Milanese bourgeoisie, his strict religious schooling, a working life which has encompassed crooning, large construction projects and the creation of a commercial television empirewith careful analysis of Berlusconi's political development.<br/><br/>While highlighting the particular italianit? of Berlusconi's trajectory, Ginsborg also finds international tendencies, such as the distorted relationship between the media system and politics. Throughout, Ginsborg suggests that Berlusconi has gotten as far as he has thanks to the wide-open space left by the strategic weaknesses of modern left-wing politics.