Roger Abaslom - Italy Since 1800

Italy Since 1800

THE PRESENT AND THE PAST .......................

Italy since 1800

A Nation in the Balance?

Roger Absalom

First published 1995 Longman Group Limited

Published 2014 by Routledge
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ISBN13: 978-0-582-02771-8 (pbk)

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Absalom, Roger Neil Lewis.

Italy since 1800 : a nation in the balance? / Roger Absalom.

p. cm. (the Present and the past)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-582-02772-1 (csd). ISBN 0-582-02771-3 (ppr)

1. ItalyHistory20th century. 2. ItalyHistory19th century

I. Title. II. Series.

DG568.5.A27 1994

The underlying objective of this presentation of the way in which the past of Italy has a bearing on the present is to explore the nature and implications of its inhabitants success in coping with the contradictions of the countrys political and economic situation, and of its social structure, and to attempt an explanation of how that success is related to the making and repeated remaking of the Italian nation-state and of Italian society through the major episodes of crisis since Bonapartes conquests began the tortuous process whereby the idea of a united Italy became a political reality. Recent developments illustrate all too clearly that this process has still not reached its final resolution and that fault-lines dating from the initial phases of the countrys formation still indicate a fundamental instability.

No claim is made for original research, although some comments upon the resistance and the immediate post-war period are informed by my research in relation to other projects. The approach has been to present both the main lines of historical development and the main interpretations put upon them. It is hoped that the result will be of some help to students and others confronting the Italian paradox of a country in the top ten of economic success and endowed with a rich artistic and intellectual culture, but burdened with a political and administrative system remarkable mainly for its corruption and inefficiency. No definitive answers can, of course, be given, but it is hoped that this review of Italys recent past will help in the formulation of the right questions.

Thanks are due to many colleagues and friends who have read various drafts and commented helpfully upon them, to Juliet Gardiner and Longman who have been unfailingly sympathetic at moments of difficulty, and above all to Patricia Absalom for her endless patience. It goes without saying that the shortcomings of the book are entirely the responsibility of the author.

Roger Absalom

The publishers would like to thank the following for their permission to reproduce illustrative material:

Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris/Giraudon-Lauros/Bridgeman Art Library, London, for plate 1.1;

Istituto Geografico De Agostini, Milan, for plates 1.2, 3.4 and 10.1;

Archivio Editore Torino for plates 1.3, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.5, 3.6, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 5.1 and 5.2;

Mary Evans Picture Library for plates 2.1 and 4.1;

Laterza, Rome, for plates 5.3, 6.2, 7.3 and 8.2;

La Pietra Editrice Srl, Milan, for plates 5.4, 6.1 and 7.1;

Farabolafoto, Milan for plate 6.3;

Publifoto Milano for plates 7.2, 8.2, 8.3, 9.2 and 10.2;

Cambridge University Press for plate 8.1, by permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library;

Dr David Ellwood for plate 9.4;

Marzia Malli, Milan, for plate 11.5;

Rex Features Ltd for plate 12.2;

The Associated Press Ltd for plate 13.2;

and Professor Harry Hearder for his assistance in tracing elusive prints.

The publishers would also like to thank The Estate of Italo Calvino and Wylie, Aitken & Stone, Inc. for granting permission to print a translation of an article by Italo Calvino.

Whilst every effort has been made to trace the owners of copyright material, in a few cases this has proved to be problematic and so we take this opportunity to offer our apologies to any copyright holders whose rights we may have unwittingly infringed.

This book is about the significance we can assign to the strengths and weaknesses of one of the major partners in the European Union. It explores them from a historical point of view, tracing the roots of the present in the past, and the difficult and often paradoxical routes followed by the makers of Italy, and the victims of their nation-building efforts, to the present condition of the country, its society, politics and economy. In particular, in attempting to identify and characterise the nature and implications of the success of Italians in coping with the material and cultural contradictions of their countrys geopolitical and economic situation and of its social structure, the book will focus its attention on the specific form taken by the modern nation-state in the area now usually coloured green on the map of Europe, and how the inner logic of its formation and its deep structures impinge on Italians today.