Modern Italy: A Political HistoryThis history of modern Italy began in March 1861 when Count Camillo Cavour proclaimed a united Italian kingdom with the goal of creating a prosperous, liberal new power in Europe. For a country whose ancient heritage had placed it at the center of western culture, this late entry into nationhood and rapid reach for power would bring frequent crisis. In this fully revised edition of his classic history of the country, Denis Mack Smith provides a complete and engaging narrative of the fate of Italy from Risorgimento to the present. For sixty years after 1861 Italy was governed by a liberal oligarchy under a parliamentary constitution. Italy chose the winning side in the First World War, but the enormous costs of victory revealed social tensions and constitutional weaknesses that prepared the way, after 1920, for Europe's first fascist dictatorship. After the painful civil war that followed World War II, Italy rediscovered liberal democracy, and under a new republican regime became one of the major industrialized countries of the world. First published in 1958 as Italy: A Modern History, the book has been substantially rewritten with a new section on the period after 1945, a new bibliography, new maps, and updated factual appendices. Stylish, clearly written, deeply informed and often controversial, it remains the definitive account for anyone interested in modern Italy. ". . . an extraordinarily good and concise introduction to the scandals that almost destroyed the Italian Republic." --Alexander DeGrand, North Carolina State University "No one will be surprised that in this new edition Mack Smith recounts the recent history of the Republic up to 1996 with the same shrewd authorial eye, both distant and perceptive, the deep knowledge, and the skill that made the older edition of this book a classic." --Raymond Grew, University of Michigan Denis Mack Smith is a Fellow of the British Academy and Wolfson College, Oxford, and a foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has been awarded a dozen literary prizes in Italy and is a Commendatore of the Italian Order of Merit. Among his recent books are Italy and Its Monarchy (1989) and Mazzini (1994). |
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Contents
The Geographical Expression 36HH | 3 |
The Idea of National Unity | 6 |
Mazzini Garibaldi and the Revolutionaries II | 11 |
Cavour and the Expansion of Piedmont | 17 |
THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC SCENE | 25 |
S The Constitution the King and Parliament | 27 |
The Social Hierarchy | 34 |
Agriculture and Industry | 41 |
Italy Remains Neutral 1914 | 255 |
Intervention Against Austria 1915 | 260 |
THE WAR AND ITS AFTERMATH 19151922 | 269 |
The Conduct of War 19151918 | 271 |
The Peace Settlement 19181920 | 276 |
New Political Currents 1919 | 282 |
Nitti and the Rape of Fiume 19191920 | 288 |
Giolitti and the Suicide of Liberalism 19201921 | 295 |
Immediate Political Problems | 48 |
THE FIRST DECADE 18611871 | 57 |
Ricasoli Rattazzi and Minghetti 18611865 | 59 |
ΙΟ Counterrevolution and Brigandage 18601865 | 66 |
The War for Venice 1866 | 72 |
Financial and Other Problems 18661867 | 78 |
The Capture of Rome | 83 |
THE NATION ASSERTS ITSELF 18701882 | 93 |
The Last Years of the Right 18701876 | 95 |
Depretis and Transformism 18701880 | 100 |
Foreign Policy 18601882 | 108 |
Colonial Enterprise 18601882 | 115 |
THE TROUBLED PERIOD OF CRISPI 18801893 | 121 |
Depretis and Crispi 18801890 | 123 |
Irredentism and Nationalist Fervor | 129 |
Agriculture and Industry about 1880 | 135 |
The Tariff War with France 18871892 | 142 |
Corruption and the Banks 18891893 | 146 |
COLONIAL DEFEAT AND POLITICAL REACTION 18931900 | 155 |
Social Unrest and Crispis Last Ministry | 157 |
The Ethiopian War and the Eclipse of Crispi | 163 |
Parliamentary Government Endangered 18961900 | 171 |
Defects in the Constitution | 178 |
GIOLITTI AND LIBERAL REFORM 19001911 | 189 |
Liberal Government Resumed 19001904 | 191 |
Clerical and Radical Cooperation 19041906 | 200 |
The Southern Problem and Emigration | 206 |
Economic and Cultural Revival | 216 |
The Last Years of Liberal Reform 19091911 | 225 |
THE ONSET OF | 233 |
The German Alliance 18961911 | 235 |
The Libyan War 19111912 | 241 |
Giolittis System Collapses 19121914 | 249 |
Bonomi and Facta 19211922 | 302 |
MUSSOLINIS REVOLUTION 19221925 | 309 |
Italy on the Eve Summer 1922 | 311 |
The March on Rome October 2630 1922 | 316 |
Dictatorship Emerges 19221924 | 322 |
The Defeat of Parliament and Press 19241925 | 329 |
THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF FASCISM | 335 |
The Machinery and Personnel of Fascism | 337 |
Economic and Social Policy | 347 |
Fascist Doctrine | 354 |
So The Standardization of Culture | 359 |
SI Persecution and Its Effects | 367 |
Surviving Institutions | 374 |
DECLINE AND FALL OF A ROMAN EMPIRE | 381 |
Foreign Policy 19221936 | 383 |
Lack of Restraint 19361938 | 389 |
The Drift Toward War 19381940 | 397 |
Military and Political Defeat 19401943 | 404 |
THE TRANSFORMATION OF ITALY 19431969 | 415 |
Liberation 19431947 | 417 |
Postwar Recovery | 425 |
Constitutional Problems in the 1950s | 434 |
the early 1960s | 443 |
ITALIAN DEMOCRACY IN CRISIS | 453 |
Terrorism Corruption and Consociation 19681981 | 455 |
The Old Regime Begins to Collapse 19811992 | 467 |
Four Attempts at Reform 19921995 | 479 |
An Interim Solution 1996 | 491 |
PRIME MINISTERS OF ITALY HEADS OF STATE POPES | 498 |
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BOOKS IN ENGLISH | 501 |
513 | |
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Common terms and phrases
administration agricultural alliance ally anticlerical army Austria became cabinet camorra capital Catholic Cavour cent Christian democrats Church claimed coalition colonial communist conservative constitution corruption Crispi Croce D'Annunzio defeat democracy Depretis deputies Duce economic elections electoral Europe fascist fascist Italy feared Fiume force France French Garibaldi Genoa German Giolitti groups helped Hitler hoped industry interests irredentism Italian Italian fascism Italy Italy's king labor lacked land later leaders Left less liberal Libya Lombardy London mafia majority Mazzini Milan military million Minghetti ministry Mussolini Naples nationalists Nitti northern once opposition parliament parliamentary party patriotism peasants Piedmont Piedmontese political politicians pope popular prefects prime minister radical railroad Rattazzi reform refused regional republican resign revolution revolutionary Right risorgimento Rome Rudinì Salandra Senate Sicilian Sicily social socialists sometimes Sonnino South southern success treaty Trieste Turati Turin Vatican victory Vittorio Emanuele vote Zanardelli