- Italy in the early Middle Ages
- Italy in the 14th and 15th centuries
- Early modern Italy (16th to 18th century)
- Revolution, restoration, and unification
- Italy from 1870 to 1945
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Additional Reading
Geography
General works
Comprehensive descriptions of many geographic aspects of the country are found in Mario Pinna and Domenico Ruocco (eds.), Italy: A Geographical Survey (1980). Rinn S. Shinn (ed.), Italy: A Country Study, 2nd ed. (1987), is a comprehensive survey of both the geography and the history of the country.
People
National, social, and demographic characteristics of the country, with a look at regional differences, are discussed in David Willey, Italians (1984); William Murray, The Last Italian: Portrait of a People (1991); and David I. Kertzer and Richard P. Saller (eds.), The Family in Italy from Antiquity to the Present (1991). Other works include John Agnew, Place and Politics in Modern Italy (2002); and Tobias Jones, The Dark Heart of Italy, rev. ed. (2007).
Economy
Broad surveys are offered in Peter Groenewegen and Joseph Halevi (eds.), Italian Economics Past and Present (1983); and Russell King, Italy (1987). Russell King, The Industrial Geography of Italy (1985) analyzes the location of industries. Raffaella Y. Nanetti, Growth and Territorial Policies: The Italian Model of Social Capitalism (1988), focuses on regional disparities and the role of local government in economic development. Alan B. Mountjoy, The Mezzogiorno, 2nd ed. (1982), briefly reviews economic conditions in southern Italy. Other special studies are Pino Arlacchi, Mafia Business: The Mafia Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, trans. by Martin Ryle (1986; originally published in Italian, 1983); Peter Lange and Marino Regini (eds.), State, Market, and Social Regulation: New Perspectives on Italy (1989; originally published in Italian, 1987); F. Pyke, G. Becattini, and W. Sengenberger (eds.), Industrial Districts and Inter-Firm Co-operation in Italy (1990); and Vera Zamagni, The Economic History of Italy, 1860–1990 (1993).
Russell L. King Paola E. SignorettaGovernment and society
Comprehensive historical introductions to political institutions and processes are presented in Paul Ginsborg, A History of Contemporary Italy: Society and Politics, 1943–1988 (1990, reissued 2003), and Italy and its Discontents: Family, Civil Society, State, 1980–2001 (2003); Frederic Spotts and Theodor Wieser, Italy: A Difficult Democracy (1986); and Joseph LaPalombara, Democracy, Italian Style (1987). Useful insights into the machinations of the power system are provided in Alan Friedman, Agnelli and the Network of Italian Power (1988). The dynamics of various political forces are the subject of Paolo Farneti, The Italian Party System (1945–1980), ed. by S.E. Finer and Alfio Mastropaolo (1985); Geoffrey Pridham, The Nature of the Italian Party System: A Regional Case Study (1981); Grant Amyot, The Italian Communist Party: The Crisis of the Popular Front Strategy (1981); and Judith Chubb, Patronage, Power, and Poverty in Southern Italy: A Tale of Two Cities (1982). A full analysis of the political, social, and economic crisis of the 1970s and the radical transformations that resulted from it is found in Sidney Tarrow, Democracy and Disorder: Protest and Politics in Italy, 1965–1975 (1989).
Giuseppe Di PalmaCultural life
Anna Laura Lepschy and Giulio Lepschy, The Italian Language Today, 2nd ed. (1988, reissued 1992), offers a survey of modern Italian and its dialects. A well-illustrated discussion of popular culture and social customs, with a look at rustic decoration and ornament, is found in Catherine Sabino, Italian Country, rev. ed. (1995). David Forgacs, Italian Culture in the Industrial Era, 1880–1980: Cultural Industries, Politics, and the Public (1990), is a history of popular culture and politico-cultural dynamics. John Julius Norwich (ed.), The Italians: History, Art, and the Genius of a People (also published as The Italian World, 1983, reprinted 1989), surveys developments from Roman times to the 20th century. James Hall, A History of Ideas and Images in Italian Art (1983, reissued 1995), traces the inspiration behind Italian art from Etruscan times. Italy’s contribution to modern motion pictures is examined in Peter Bondanella, Italian Cinema: From Neorealism to the Present, 3rd ed. (2001).
Russell L. King Melanie F. KnightsHistory
General works
A comprehensive survey of Italian history is Reinhold Schumann, Italy in the Last Fifteen Hundred Years: A Concise History, 2nd ed. (1992). A good compendium is George Holmes, The Oxford Illustrated History of Italy (2001).
Italy in the early Middle Ages
Comprehensive discussions of medieval Italy are provided in the first three volumes of The Cambridge Medieval History: The Christian Roman Empire and the Foundation of the Teutonic Kingdoms, 2nd ed., vol. 1 (1924, reprinted 1967); The Rise of the Saracens and the Foundation of the Western Empire, 2nd ed., vol. 2 (1924, reissued 1967); and Germany and the Western Empire, 2nd ed., vol. 3 (1924, reissued 1968). Giovanni Tabacco, The Struggle for Power in Medieval Italy: Structures of Political Rule, trans. by Rosalind Brown Jensen (1989; originally published in Italian, 1979), is a major survey of sociopolitical history. Also of interest is Chris Wickham, Early Medieval Italy: Central Power and Local Society, 400–1000 (1981, reissued 1989).
Specific political and social topics of early periods are studied in A.H.M. Jones, The Later Roman Empire, 284–602: A Social, Economic, and Administrative Survey, 2 vol. (1964, reprinted 1986); T.S. Brown, Gentlemen and Officers: Imperial Administration and Aristocratic Power in Byzantine Italy, A.D. 554–800 (1984); Thomas F.X. Noble, The Republic of St. Peter: The Birth of the Papal State, 680–825 (1984); and Barbara M. Kreutz, Before the Normans: Southern Italy in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries (1991). Chris Wickham, The Mountains and the City: The Tuscan Appennines in the Early Middle Ages (1988), is a regional study. Socioeconomic analyses include Bryan Ward-Perkins, From Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages: Urban Public Building in Northern and Central Italy, AD 300–850 (1984); and appropriate articles in Richard Hodges and Brian Hobley (eds.), The Rebirth of Towns in the West, AD 700–1050 (1988). The art of this period is examined by Richard Krautheimer, Rome, Profile of a City, 312–1308 (1980, reissued 2000); and Richard Hodges and John Mitchell (eds.), San Vincenzo al Volturno: The Archaeology, Art, and Territory of an Early Medieval Monastery (1985).
Christopher John WickhamThe High Middle Ages, 962–1300
Works embracing the whole period include Contest of Empire and Papacy, 2nd ed. (1924, reissued 1968), vol. 5 of The Cambridge Medieval History; and Chiara Frugoni, A Distant City: Images of Urban Experience in the Medieval World, trans by William McCuaig (1991; originally published in Italian, 1983). The reform era is studied in Uta-Renate Blumenthal, The Investiture Controversy: Church and Monarchy from the Ninth to the Twelfth Century (1988, reissued 1991; originally published in German, 1982). The role of medieval Italy in Mediterranean commerce is examined in David Abulafia, Italy, Sicily, and the Mediterranean, 1100–1400 (1987); and Gerald W. Day, Genoa’s Response to Byzantium, 1155–1204: Commercial Expansion and Factionalism in a Medieval City (1988).
Examinations of social and cultural life in the 12th and 13th centuries include Lester K. Little, Liberty, Charity, Fraternity: Lay Religious Confraternities at Bergamo in the Age of the Commune, ed. by Sandro Buzzetti (1988); James M. Powell, Albertanus of Brescia: The Pursuit of Happiness in the Early Thirteenth Century (1992); and Albert Rabil, Jr. (ed.), Renaissance Humanism: Foundations, Forms, and Legacy, Humanism in Italy, vol. 1 (1988).
A broad comparative analysis of the communes is presented in Lauro Martines, Power and Imagination: City-States in Renaissance Italy (1979, reissued 2002); and Daniel Waley, The Italian City-Republics, 3rd ed. (1988). Histories of individual city-states include George W. Dameron, Episcopal Power and Florentine Society, 1000–1320 (1991); Robert Brentano, Rome Before Avignon: A Social History of Thirteenth-Century Rome (1974, reissued 1990); and Frederick C. Lane, Venice, a Maritime Republic (1973, reissued 1991).
The Papal States are addressed in Peter Partner, The Lands of St. Peter; The Papal State in the Middle Ages and the Early Renaissance (1972). The history of the kingdom of Sicily is explored in Norman Housley, The Italian Crusades: The Papal-Angevin Alliance and the Crusades Against Christian Lay Powers, 1254–1343 (1982, reissued 1999); and Donald Matthew, The Norman Kingdom of Sicily (1992).
James M. PowellItaly in the 14th and 15th centuries
General outlines of the period, together with references to important works in Italian and other languages, are to be found in Denys Hay and John Law, Italy in the Age of the Renaissance, 1380–1530 (1989). An excellent work of reference is J.R. Hale (ed.), A Concise Encyclopaedia of the Italian Renaissance (1981). Wallace Klippert Ferguson, The Renaissance in Historical Thought: Five Centuries of Interpretation (1948, reprinted 1981), is useful for periodization.
Works that consider the social background of high culture are George Holmes, Florence, Rome, and the Origins of the Renaissance (1986, reissued 1988), and The Florentine Enlightenment, 1400–50 (1969, reissued 1992). Influential discussions of the subject are Paul Oskar Kristeller, Renaissance Thought: The Classic, Scholastic, and Humanistic Strains (1961, reprinted 1980), and Renaissance Thought and the Arts, expanded ed. (1990; originally published as Renaissance Thought II: Papers on Humanism and the Arts, 1965). The artist in society is discussed by Martin Wackernagel, The World of the Florentine Renaissance Artist: Projects and Patrons, Workshop and Art Market, trans. by Alison Luchs (1938, reissued 1981; originally published in German, 1938); and Bruce Cole, The Renaissance Artist at Work: From Pisano to Titian (1983).
Most writings in English have concentrated on the republics. Valuable works on the great Tuscan city of Florence are Gene A. Brucker, Renaissance Florence (1969, reissued 1994); Richard C. Trexler, Public Life in Renaissance Florence (1980, reissued 1991); Richard A. Goldthwaite, The Building of Renaissance Florence: An Economic and Social History (1980, reissued 1990); John N. Najemy, Corporatism and Consensus in Florentine Electoral Politics, 1280–1400 (1982); David Herlihy and Christiane Klapisch-Zuber, Tuscans and Their Families: A Study of the Florentine Catasto of 1427 (1985; originally published in French, 1978); and, on the great ruling family, J.R. Hale, Florence and the Medici: The Pattern of Control, new ed. (2001).
Interesting contributions on the Serenissima are in Robert Finlay, Politics in Renaissance Venice (1980); and Edward Muir, Civic Ritual in Renaissance Venice (1981, reissued 1986).
The Papal States are treated in the work by Partner cited above (in the section on the High Middle Ages); and studies of its signori include Trevor Dean, Land and Power in Late Medieval Ferrara: The Rule of the Este, 1350–1450 (1988, reissued 2002). Works on the southern kingdoms include Denis Mack Smith, Medieval Sicily, 800–1713 (1968, reprinted 1988), vol. 1 of A History of Sicily.
John LarnerEarly modern Italy (16th–18th centuries)
Two magisterial works frame this period in its European perspective: Fernand Braudel, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, translated from French by Siân Reynolds, 2nd rev. ed., 2 vol. (1966, reissued 1995); and Franco Venturi, Settecento riformatore (1969– ), with English translations of 2 vol., The End of the Old Regime in Europe, 1768–1776: The First Crisis (1989) and The End of the Old Regime in Europe, 1776–1789, 2 parts (1990–91).
General surveys of the period include Eric Cochrane, Italy 1530–1630, ed. by Julius Kirshner (1988); and Dino Carpanetto and Giuseppe Ricuperati, Italy in the Age of Reason, 1685–1789, translated from Italian by Caroline Higgitt (1987). Other studies are Stuart Woolf, A History of Italy, 1700–1860: The Social Constraints of Political Change (1979, reissued 1991); and the relevant volumes of The New Cambridge Modern History, 14 vol. (1957–79); and of The Cambridge Economic History of Europe, 2nd ed. (1966– ).
Studies of the individual states include, on Savoy, Geoffrey Symcox, Victor Amadeus II: Absolutism in the Savoyard State, 1675–1730 (1983); on Venice, the work by Lane cited above in the section on histories of the individual city-states; and the work by Muir cited in the section above (14th–15th centuries); on Florence, R. Burr Litchfield, Emergence of a Bureaucracy: The Florentine Patricians, 1530–1790 (1986); on Rome, Hanns Gross, Rome in the Age of Enlightenment: The Post-Tridentine Syndrome and the Ancien Regime (1990); on Naples, Antonio Calabria and John A. Marino (eds. and trans.), Good Government in Spanish Naples, trans. from Italian (1990); and Rosario Villari, The Revolt of Naples, trans. by James Newell (1993; originally published in Italian, 1967); and, on Sicily, the work by Mack Smith cited in the previous section, along with its companion volume, Modern Sicily, After 1713 (1968, reissued 1988).
Topics of special interest are addressed in Carlo Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller, trans. by John Tedeschi and Anne Tedeschi (1980, reissued 1992; originally published in Italian, 1976), and The Night Battles: Witchcraft & Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth & Seventeenth Centuries (1983, reissued 1992; originally published in Italian, 1966); Jonathan D. Spence, The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci (1984); Guido Ruggiero, The Boundaries of Eros: Sex Crime and Sexuality in Renaissance Venice (1985, reissued 1989); Mario Biagioli, Galileo, Courtier: The Practice of Science in the Culture of Absolutism (1993); Peter Burke, The Historical Anthropology of Early Modern Italy: Essays on Perception and Communication (1987); Paul F. Grendler, Schooling in Renaissance Italy: Literacy and Learning, 1300–1600 (1989, reissued 1991); and Margaret L. King, Women of the Renaissance (1991).
John A. MarinoRevolution, restoration, and unification
Works covering this period include David Laven and Lucy Riall (eds.), Napoleon’s Legacy: Problems of Government in Restoration Europe (2000); John A. Davis and Paul Ginsborg (eds.), Society and Politics in the Age of the Risorgimento (1991), a collection of essays; Frank J. Coppa, The Origins of the Italian Wars of Independence (1992); Clara M. Lovett, The Democratic Movement in Italy, 1830–1876 (1982); Denis Mack Smith, Cavour and Garibaldi, 1860: A Study in Political Conflict (1954, reissued 1985), and Mazzini (1994, reprinted 1996); Benedict S. LiPira, Giuseppe Garibaldi: A Biography of the Father of Modern Italy (1998); and Paul Ginsborg, Daniele Manin and the Venetian Revolution of 1848–49 (1979). An essential work on Garibaldi is Lucy Riall, Garibaldi: Invention of a Hero (2007). Entries on major events and figures may be found in Frank J. Coppa (ed.), Dictionary of Modern Italian History (1985). Useful introductions to new debates concerning the Risorgimento are Lucy Riall, The Italian Risorgimento: State, Society, and National Unification (1994); and Martin Clark, The Italian Risorgimento (1998). Other aspects of the period are dealt with in John A. Davis, Conflict and Control: Law and Order in Nineteenth-Century Italy (1988); and Lucy Riall, Sicily and the Unification of Italy: Liberal Policy and Local Power, 1859–1866 (1998).
Clara M. Lovett John FootItaly since 1870
The fullest one-volume studies in English are Denis Mack Smith, Modern Italy: A Political History (1997); Martin Clark, Modern Italy, 1871–1995, 2nd ed. (1996); Christopher Duggan, A Concise History of Italy (1994); John Foot, Modern Italy (2003); and Jonathan Dunnage, Twentieth Century Italy: A Social History (2002).
Denis Mack Smith, Italy and Its Monarchy (1989, reissued 1992), covers particular aspects. Christopher Seton-Watson, Italy from Liberalism to Fascism, 1870–1925 (1967, reprinted 1981), is excellent on the first half of the period.
Foreign policy before World War I is the topic of R.J.B. Bosworth, Italy and the Approach of the First World War (1983). The early socialist movement is discussed well in Richard Hostetter, The Italian Socialist Movement (1958); and Louise A. Tilly, Politics and Class in Milan, 1881–1901 (1992). The army is treated in John Gooch, Army, State, and Society in Italy, 1870–1915 (1989). On Giolitti, A. William Salomone, Italy in the Giolittian Era: Italian Democracy in the Making, 1900–1914 (1960), is still very useful. An excellent overview of economic history is given in Gianni Toniolo, An Economic History of Liberal Italy, 1850–1918 (1990; originally published in Italian, 1988).
David Forgacs (ed.), Rethinking Italian Fascism: Capitalism, Populism, and Culture (1986), is a good collection of articles; whereas Luisa Passerini, Fascism in Popular Memory: The Cultural Experience of the Turin Working Class (1987; originally published in Italian, 1984), is an interesting social history. Denis Mack Smith, Mussolini (1981, reissued 1994), is indispensable; more detail is available in the monumental and controversial work of Renzo De Felice, Mussolini, 4 vol. in 8 (1965–1997), in Italian. The best biography available in English is R.J.B. Bosworth, Mussolini (2002). The rise of fascism in particular is examined by Adrian Lyttelton, The Seizure of Power: Fascism in Italy, 1919–1929, 3rd ed. (2004). Other aspects are dealt with in Jonathan Dunnage, The Italian Police and the Rise of Fascism: A Case Study of the Province of Bologna, 1897–1925 (1997). A look at the “forgotten” class of shopkeepers in an urban setting is Jonathan Morris, The Political Economy of Shopkeeping in Milan, 1886–1922 (1993). The diversity of fascist ideas is revealed in works by R.J.B. Bosworth, The Italian Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives in the Interpretation of Mussolini and Fascism (1998), and Mussolini’s Italy (2006); and Philip Morgan, Italian Fascism, 1919–1945 (1995); and in biographies of leading fascists—e.g., Claudio G. Segrè, Italo Balbo (1987, reissued 1990). The collection by R.J.B. Bosworth and Patrizia Dogliani (eds.), Italian Fascism: History, Memory and Representation (1999), reflects some of the new historical work in these areas, particular in the area of memory. The impact of fascism is discussed by Victoria De Grazia, How Fascism Ruled Women: Italy, 1922–1945 (1992); and Doug Thompson, State Control in Fascist Italy: Culture and Conformity, 1925–43 (1991). Now available in English is research by Emilio Gentile, The Sacralization of Politics in Fascist Italy (1996; originally published in Italian, 1993). An important local study is Perry R. Willson, The Clockwork Factory: Women and Work in Fascist Italy (1993). Useful documents and commentaries can be found in John Pollard, The Fascist Experience in Italy (1998).
Church-state relations are examined in Peter C. Kent, The Pope and the Duce: The International Impact of the Lateran Agreements (1981); and John F. Pollard, The Vatican and Italian Fascism, 1929–32: A Study in Conflict (1985). Anti-Semitism is treated in Susan Zuccotti, The Italians and the Holocaust: Persecution, Rescue, and Survival (1987, reissued 1996); and Alexander Stille, Benevolence and Betrayal: Five Italian Jewish Families Under Fascism (1991, reissued 1993). Fascist foreign policy is the subject of Denis Mack Smith, Mussolini’s Roman Empire (1976, reissued 1979); R.J.B. Bosworth, Italy and the Wider World, 1860–1960 (1996); and Richard Lamb, Mussolini and the British (1997).
Charles F. Delzell, Mussolini’s Enemies: The Italian Anti-Fascist Resistance (1961, reprinted 1974), is still useful on the Resistance period. David W. Ellwood, Italy, 1943–1945 (1985), is strong on diplomatic history. The best history of Italian communism is Paolo Spriano, Renzo Martinelli, and Giovanni Gozzini, Storia del Partito Comunista Italiano, 7 vol. (1967–98). An English work on this topic is Alexander De Grand, The Italian Left in the Twentieth Century (1989). For the biennio rosso, Gwyn A.Williams, Proletarian Order: Antonio Gramsci, Factory Councils, and the Origins of Italian Communism, 1911–1921 (1975); and Martin Clark, Antonio Gramsci and the Revolution that Failed (1977), remain useful. A neglected aspect of the period has been studied in detail by Carl Levy, Gramsci and the Anarchists (1999).
Resistance history has taken a new lease on life since the end of the Cold War. A key study, Claudio Pavone Una guerra civile: saggio storico sulla moralità nella Resistenza (1991), is, unfortunately, unavailable in English; but debates can be found in Jonathan Dunnage (ed.), After the War (1999); and in Philip Cooke, The Italian Resistance: An Anthology (1997). Other aspects are covered in Jane Slaughter, Women and the Italian Resistance, 1943–1945 (1997); and Alastair Davidson and Steve Wright (eds.), Never Give In: The Italian Resistance and Politics (1998).
The best study of postwar Italy is without doubt Paul Ginsborg, A History of Contemporary Italy: Society and Politics, 1943–1988 (1990; originally published in Italian, 1989). Ginsborg followed with an analysis of recent decades in Italy and Its Discontents: Family, Civil Society, and State, 1980–2001 (2001; originally published in Italian). The early Cold War years are discussed in Christopher Duggan and Christopher Wagstaff (eds.), Italy in the Cold War: Politics, Culture, and Society, 1948–1958 (1995).
The best accounts of the postwar political system are in Donald Sassoon, Contemporary Italy, 2nd ed. (1997); Frederic Spotts and Theodor Wieser, Italy: A Difficult Democracy (1986); and David Hine, Governing Italy: The Politics of Bargained Pluralism (1993). P.A. Allum, State and Society in Western Europe (1995), an exhaustive work; and Giulio Sapelli, Southern Europe Since 1945: Tradition and Modernity in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, and Turkey (1995), put the Italian system in comparative perspective. An extremely useful selection of articles can be found in Mark Donovan (ed.), Italy, 2 vol. (1998). The classic text on regionalism is now Robert D. Putnam, Robert Leonardi, and Rafaella Y. Nanetti, Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy (1993); and good studies on contemporary regionalism can be found in Carl Levy (ed.), Italian Regionalism: History, Identity, and Politics (1996).
The “new” view of southern history is in Robert Lumley and Jonathan Morris (eds.), The New History of the Italian South: The Mezzogiorno Revisited (1997); and Piero Bevilacqua, Breve storia dell’Italia meridionale: dall’Ottocento a oggi (1993), which has been described as a manifesto for the new southern historians. Among the many interesting publications on the south is Marta Petrusewicz, Latifundium: Moral Economy and Material Life in a European Periphery (1996; originally published in Italian, 1989). Other works include John Dickie, Darkest Italy: The Nation and Stereotypes of the Mezzogiorno, 1860-1900 (1999), an important study; and Silvana Patriarca, Numbers and Nationhood: Writing Statistics in Nineteenth-Century Italy (1996). Frank M.Snowden, Naples in the Time of Cholera, 1884-1911 (1995), is a marvelous and original work.
A collection of essays on the role of the family is David I. Kertzer and Richard P. Saller (eds.), The Family in Italy from Antiquity to the Present (1991).
Discussion on the left is in David I. Kertzer, Comrades and Christians: Religion and Political Struggle in Communist Italy (1980, reissued with changes, 1990), and Politics & Symbols: The Italian Communist Party and the Fall of Communism (1996). Luciano Cheles, Ronnie Ferguson, and Michalina Vaughan (eds.), Neo-fascism in Europe (1991), deals with the far right.
On the Mafia and organized crime, particularly noteworthy are Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia: The Business of Private Protection (1993; originally published in Italian, 1992); Henner Hess, Mafia and Mafiosi (1973, reissued 1998; originally published in German, 1970); and Giovanni Falcone and Marcelle Padovani, Men of Honour (1992; originally published in Italian, 1991). Dramatic developments of the 1980s and ’90s are detailed in Alexander Stille, Excellent Cadavers: The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic (1995). Renate Siebert, Secrets of Life and Death: Women and the Mafia (1996; originally published in Italian, 1994), is a fascinating study of a little-known aspect of this subject. Regional studies include Tom Behan, The Camorra (1996); and James Walston, The Mafia and Clientelism: Roads to Rome in Post-war Calabria (1988). P.A.Allum, Politics and Society in Post-war Naples (1973), remains a prescient and classic account of urban life and political corruption. An evocative account of the 1990s can be found in Peter Robb, Midnight in Sicily (1996).
The student and worker movements of recent decades are discussed in Robert Lumley, States of Emergency: Cultures of Revolt in Italy from 1968 to 1978 (1990), a local study (of Milan) with general relevance; and Sidney Tarrow, Democracy and Disorder: Protest and Politics in Italy, 1965–1975 (1989). Interviews of movement participants are used to illuminate the field of oral history in Alessandro Portelli, The Battle of Valle Giulia: Oral History and the Art of Dialogue (1997). The feminist perspective may be seen in Luisa Passerini, Autobiography of a Generation: Italy, 1968 (1996; first published in Italian, 1988); and Judith Adler Hellman, Journeys Among Women: Feminism in Five Italian Cities (1987).
Trade unions and labour problems are discussed in Miriam Golden, Labor Divided: Austerity and Working-Class Politics in Contemporary Italy (1988); and Roberto Franzosi, The Puzzle of Strikes: Class and State Strategies in Postwar Italy (1995).
Cultural history, which has become a key part of the bibliography on Italy, is dealt with in David Forgacs, Italian Culture in the Industrial Era, 1880–1980: Cultural Industries, Politics, and the Public (1990); David Forgacs and Robert Lumley (eds.), Italian Cultural Studies: An Introduction (1996); Robert Lumley (compiler), Italian Journalism: A Critical Anthology (1996); Zygmunt G. Barański and Robert Lumley, Culture and Conflict in Postwar Italy: Essays on Mass and Popular Culture (1990); John Foot, Milan Since the Miracle: City, Culture, and Identity (2001); and Gino Moliterno (ed.), Encyclopedia of Contemporary Italian Culture (2000).
The best studies of terrorism in the 1970s are David Moss, The Politics of Left-Wing Violence in Italy, 1969–85 (1989); and Raimondo Catanzaro (ed.), The Red Brigades and Left-Wing Terrorism in Italy (1991). Leonardo Sciascia, The Moro Affair, trans. from Italian by Sacha Rabinovitch, extended ed. (2002; originally published as The Moro Affair; and, The Mystery of Majorana, 1987), is a biting account of one if Italy’s great mysteries.
Coverage of the 1980s and post-1992 crisis is in Robert Leonardi and Raffaella Y. Neanetti (eds.), Italian Politics: A Review, an excellent yearbook; Stephen Gundle and Simon Parker (eds.), The New Italian Republic: From the Fall of the Berlin Wall to Berlusconi (1996); Martin Bull and Martin Rhodes, Crisis and Transition in Italian Politics (1997); Vittorio Bufacchi and Simon Burgess, Italy Since 1989: Events and Interpretations (1998); and a special issue of Modern Italy: Journal of the Association for the Study of Modern Italy, “The Italian Crisis, 1989–1994,” vol. 1, no. 1 (1995). Patrick McCarthy, The Crisis of the Italian State (1997), is a very useful one-volume account. Two other useful studies are Donald Martin Carter, States of Grace: Senegalese in Italy and the New European Immigration (1997); and Jeffrey Cole, The New Racism in Europe: A Sicilian Ethnography (1997). Donna R. Gabaccia, Italy’s Many Diasporas (2000), looks at the Italian world community in historical perspective. On the Berlusconi government, see Paul Ginsborg, Silvio Berlusconi: Television, Power, and Patrimony, 2nd ed. (2005); Geoff Andrews, Not a Normal Country: Italy After Berlusconi (2005); and David Lane, Berlusconi’s Shadow: Crime, Justice, and the Pursuit of Power (2005).
Russell L. King Melanie F. Knights Martin Clark John FootArticle Contributors
Primary Contributors
- John A. Marino
- Marino Berengo
- Martin Clark
-
Giuseppe Di Palma
Emeritus Professor of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley. Author of Surviving Without Governing: The Italian Parties in Parliament and others.
- Giuseppe Di Palma
- Paola E. Signoretta
-
Melanie F. Knights
Graduate student in geography, University of Sussex, Brighton, England.
- John Foot
- Christopher John Wickham
- Russell L. King
- John Larner
- Clara M. Lovett
- James M. Powell
- Giuseppe Nangeroni
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Other Contributors
- Roberto Talpo
-
Geoff Tompkinson
For more than 30 years Geoff Tompkinson has traveled the world as a photographer. Working at different times in the fields of photojournalism, corporate, advertising, stock, 3D concepts and latterly timelapse and realtime motion clips, During his corporate period he worked on annual reports and corporate brochures for Glaxo, ICI, Zeneca, Fisons, Bibby, Inchcape, Ready Mixed Concrete, Genzyme, PHLS and many more. His timelapse and realtime footage regularly appears on television all over the world as well as in major Hollywood movies.
-
Ida Yalzadeh
Freelance writer.
Other Encyclopedia Britannica Contributors
Article History
Type | Description | Contributor | Date |
---|---|---|---|
Updated currency exchange rate. | Aug 14, 2024 | ||
Links added. | Nov 16, 2023 | ||
Link added. | Oct 12, 2023 | ||
Links added. | Oct 09, 2023 | ||
Link added. | Aug 18, 2023 | ||
Links added. | May 10, 2023 | ||
Links and photos added. | Mar 16, 2023 | ||
Country Profile: Updated Head of government. | Oct 24, 2022 | ||
Removed media. | Aug 26, 2021 | ||
Invalidated site: GlobalSecurity.org - Republic of Italy. | Mar 10, 2021 | ||
Country Profile: Updated Head of government. | Feb 16, 2021 | ||
Media added. | Feb 02, 2021 | ||
Media added. | Aug 27, 2019 | ||
Updated for the formation of the League-Five Star coalition government. | Jun 12, 2018 | ||
Country Profile: Updated head of government. | Jun 04, 2018 | ||
Country Profile: Expanded country profile. | Mar 28, 2018 | ||
Media added. | Feb 01, 2018 | ||
Updated for the dissolution of the Italian parliament. | Feb 01, 2018 | ||
Deleted photograph in the Revolution, restoration, and unification section. | Mar 03, 2017 | ||
Country Profile: Updated head of government. | Dec 14, 2016 | ||
Updated for the December 2016 constitutional referendum. | Dec 06, 2016 | ||
Media added. | Aug 12, 2016 | ||
Add new Web site: GlobalSecurity.org - Republic of Italy. | Jul 31, 2016 | ||
Add new Web site: CRW Flags - Flag of Italy, Europe. | Jul 31, 2016 | ||
In People section, added data charts. | May 12, 2016 | ||
In Economy section, added data charts. | May 12, 2016 | ||
Added locator map to the Introduction. | May 04, 2016 | ||
Added video. | May 19, 2015 | ||
Added video. | May 08, 2015 | ||
Added video. | Mar 19, 2015 | ||
Country Profile: Updated head of state. | Feb 17, 2015 | ||
Added video. | Feb 04, 2015 | ||
Added video. | Dec 03, 2014 | ||
Media added. | Jun 16, 2014 | ||
Changed "the Crimea" to "Crimea." | Apr 08, 2014 | ||
Updated for the swearing in of Matteo Renzi as prime minister. | Feb 24, 2014 | ||
Country Profile: Updated head of government. | Feb 22, 2014 | ||
Updated for the collapse of the Letta government. | Feb 13, 2014 | ||
Updated for the October 2, 2013, vote of confidence in favor of the Letta government. | Oct 02, 2013 | ||
Updated for the upholding of Silvio Berlusconi's conviction on fraud charges. | Aug 02, 2013 | ||
Country Profile: Updated head of government. | Apr 30, 2013 | ||
Updated for the selection of Enrico Letta as prime minister. | Apr 24, 2013 | ||
Updated for the reelection of Giorgio Napolitano as president. | Apr 23, 2013 | ||
Country Profile: Footnote revised for form of government. | Mar 08, 2013 | ||
Updated with the results of the February 2013 general election. | Feb 26, 2013 | ||
Add new Web site: National Geographic Kids - Countries - Italy. | Feb 12, 2013 | ||
Add new Web site: Maps of World - Italy. | Feb 12, 2013 | ||
Updated for the resignation of Mario Monti. | Jan 07, 2013 | ||
Add new Web site: Iloveindia.com - Italy. | Dec 06, 2012 | ||
Add new Web site: Buzzle.com - Italy. | Dec 06, 2012 | ||
Economy section revised and updated. | Aug 08, 2012 | ||
Government and society section revised and updated. | Aug 08, 2012 | ||
Cultural life section revised and updated. | Aug 08, 2012 | ||
People section revised and updated. | Aug 08, 2012 | ||
Country Profile: Added name of head of state and head of government, along with urban-rural, life expectancy, literacy, and GNI per capita statistics. | Feb 27, 2012 | ||
Country Profile: Changed form of government. | Feb 27, 2012 | ||
Added photograph. | Jan 10, 2012 | ||
Updated to mention the fall of the Berlusconi government. | Nov 14, 2011 | ||
Added photograph. | Sep 02, 2011 | ||
Restructured article. | Aug 22, 2011 | ||
Updated to mention the euro zone debt crisis and the Berlusconi sex scandal. | Jul 18, 2011 | ||
Add new Web site: Official Tourism Site of Italy. | May 17, 2011 | ||
Add new Web site: Official Tourism Site of Italy. | May 17, 2011 | ||
Changed the term for judges on the Constitutional Court from "12 years" to "nine years." | Apr 11, 2011 | ||
Added an audio file of the country's national anthem. | Feb 08, 2011 | ||
Moved the audio file of the country's national anthem to the first paragraph of the article. | Feb 08, 2011 | ||
Added audio clip of Italy's national anthem. | Aug 31, 2010 | ||
Country Profile: Updated area and population figures. | Mar 12, 2010 | ||
Clarified that the European Union succeeded the European Economic Community. | Jan 08, 2010 | ||
Clarified that the European Economic Community was succeeded by the European Union. | Dec 28, 2009 | ||
Removed quotation from introduction. | Dec 02, 2009 | ||
Country Profile: Updated Official language. | Oct 20, 2009 | ||
Clarified that standard written Italian existed prior to Italian unification. | Oct 06, 2009 | ||
Geologic time data updated. | Sep 17, 2009 | ||
Added more detail on Allied bombings, particularly the air raid on Rome, during World War II. |
|
Jun 01, 2009 | |
Added new Web site: National Geographic - Travel - Italy. | Apr 20, 2009 | ||
Added new Web site: The Canadian Encyclopedia - Italy. | Feb 17, 2009 | ||
Added new Web site: Jewish Virtual Library - Italy. | Sep 28, 2008 | ||
Media added. | Jul 31, 2008 | ||
Updated text about electoral law passed before 2006 elections, which overturned 1993 referendum. | Jun 25, 2008 | ||
Article revised and updated. | Jun 25, 2008 | ||
Article revised and updated. | May 12, 2008 | ||
Added new Web site: Central Intelligence Agency - The World Factbook - Italy. | May 09, 2008 | ||
Article revised and updated. | Apr 14, 2008 | ||
Updated with election results. | Apr 14, 2008 | ||
Article revised and updated. | Mar 13, 2008 | ||
Updated history with dissolution of parliament. | Feb 06, 2008 | ||
updated with Prodi's resignation and Napolitano's request to Marini to form gov't, 1/31/08 | Feb 05, 2008 | ||
Article revised and updated. | Dec 07, 2007 | ||
Article revised and updated. | Nov 15, 2007 | ||
Article revised and updated. | Aug 07, 2007 | ||
Added new Web site: Passion for Italy - For Lovers of All Things Italian. | Jul 17, 2007 | ||
Added new Web site: The Catholic Encyclopedia - Italy. | Jul 12, 2007 | ||
Article revised and updated. | Mar 01, 2007 | ||
Bibliography revised. | Mar 01, 2007 | ||
Article revised and updated. | Mar 01, 2007 | ||
Article thoroughly revised. | Feb 23, 2007 | ||
Article revised and updated. | Feb 23, 2007 | ||
Added new Web site: Official Site of the Embassy of Italy in Maputo. | Feb 07, 2007 | ||
Added new Web site: U.S. Department of State - Italy. | Jan 25, 2007 | ||
Added new Web site: Lonely Planet - Italy. | Jan 19, 2007 | ||
Intro revised. | Dec 21, 2006 | ||
Article thoroughly revised. | Dec 21, 2006 | ||
Added new Web site: Library of Congress - Italy - Selected Internet Resources. | Aug 08, 2006 | ||
Added new Web site: CIA - The World Factbook - Italy. | Jul 25, 2006 | ||
Added new Web site: Traditional Italian Recipes: Florentine & Tuscan Cooking. | Jun 27, 2006 | ||
Article revised. | Feb 29, 2000 | ||
Article revised. | Jan 12, 2000 | ||
Article added to new online database. | Jul 20, 1998 |