From media mogul to political powerhouse and back.

Chances are, even without following international politics, one would be familiar with Silvio Berlusconi, at least by name. Though known first for his media empire, his notoriety rose with his political career and the (yet unproven) corruption scandals to which he was linked. In the unimaginatively titled Silvio Berlusconi (London, Verso, New Left Books. pp. 183), Paul Ginsborg, a British professor of European history at the University of Florence, and co-founder of leftist and openly anti-Berlusconi organization, Laboratorio per la Democrazia, attempts to dissect Italy's current "Prime Minister." but falls embarrassingly short.

The book opens with an unnecessary glossary: Most of the terms are explained again when mentioned in the text. while others that need clarification for non-Italian readers, such as "Non e la RAI," one of Berlusconi's TV station's variety shows, are never translated. Ginsborg does not mention that "Non e la RAI" is a tongue-in-cheek reference to "No, non d la BBC Questa e la RAI, la RAI tivu," ("This IS not the BBC. This is RAI, RAI TV"), a RAI program that played upon the BBC's lofty reputation.

In addition, Ginsborg translates Forza Italia, Berlusconi's party's name, as "Go for it, Italy!" Yes, Italian soccer fans chant "Forza Italia!" at international soccer games--which is where Berlusconi got the name--but just as Brits would never actually chant "Go for it, Britain!", so too Forza Italia is much better translated as "Go Italy!"

Throughout the book, Ginsborg lays out the facts as if writing a shopping list of Berlusconi's life, adding only a few interpretations of his own. While describing his childhood, for example, Ginsborg wants us to believe that when Berlusconi was sent off to boarding school, he developed the charm and talent of making instant friends in order to replace the adoration of his parents with that of his peers. To Ginsborg, this is evidence that Berlusconi still needs constant reassurance from a loyal group of friends that he snidely refers to as his "entourage."

Ginsborg devotes only one chapter to the development of Berlusconi's media empire, saying that Berlusconi first turned the local TV station of Milano 2 (a luxury community that he built outside his hometown of Milan), into Candle 5. He started to broadcast all over the country, using a loophole in a 1976 Italian Constitutional Court ruling that reserved national broadcasts to public television, and limited commercial radio-TV to local areas. When the judiciary tried to intervene, his allies in government began changing the law. Subsequently, Berlusconi bought out his two main TV competitors, Italia 1 and Rettequattro. His advertising empire, Publitalia, the core of his success, was able to close shrewd deals that forced out the remaining competition.

Though the subject matter is innately interesting--Berlusconi's life and career seem almost tailor-made for a novel or movie--Ginsborg's writing makes this book less than gripping. His style is full of awkward phrasing, punctuation, grammar and flowery descriptions. Also, footnotes appear on almost every page. They annotate insignificant pieces of information, incorrectly indicate where in the book an item is explored further and offer bibliographies on suggested further reading. With very few exceptions, all the footnotes could have been banished to an "Endnotes" section. Due in part to the short length of the text, the irrelevant glossary and the syntax issues outlined above, this book is eerily reminiscent of a "C"-worthy college term paper.

The coverage of Berlusconi's political rise, fall and subsequent return to politics as a winner, are presented in detail, but it is clear, even to one who may not know about Ginsborg's own efforts in the Italian union movement, that he is severely prejudiced against Berlusconi. On the bottom of the first page of the prologue, Ginsborg correlates Berlusconi to Mussolini, warning that Italians' day-to-day preoccupations are blinding them from seeing the dangerous path their country is headed on--as Ginsborg says happened in the 1920s with Mussolini. Had Ginsborg written the rest of the book with this negative slant, we would have a much more interesting, honest perspective of Berlusconi's career. As it were, after the prologue, Ginsborg pretends to be unbiased, a task at which he doesn't succeed.

Ginsborg has held back the only thing he could contribute to make this biography stand out among many others--his opinion. What's left is a very short, verbose sampling from the numerous sources whose bibliographic information crowds the bottom of each page. If one is interested in Berlusconi, it is worth picking this book up--but only to skim the footnotes in search of a better, more focused book to buy and enjoy.