Garibaldi: Citizen of the World: A Biography

by Alfonso Scirocco, Allan Cameron (Translator)

What adventure novelist could have invented the life of Giuseppe Garibaldi? The revolutionary, soldier, politician, and greatest figure in the fight for Italian unification, Garibaldi (1807-1882) brought off almost as many dramatic exploits in the Americas as he did in Europe, becoming an international freedom fighter, earning the title of the "hero of two worlds," and making himself perhaps the most famous and beloved man of his century. Alfonso Scirocco's Garibaldi is the most up-to-date, authoritative, comprehensive, and convincing biography of Garibaldi yet written. In vivid narrative style and unprecedented detail, and drawing on many new sources that shed fresh light on important events, Scirocco tells the full story of Garibaldi's fascinating public and private life, separating its myth-like reality from the outright myths that have surrounded Garibaldi since his own day.

Scirocco tells how Garibaldi devoted his energies to the liberation of Italians and other oppressed peoples. Sentenced to death for his role in an abortive Genoese insurrection in 1834, Garibaldi fled to South America, where he joined two successive fights for independence--Rio Grande do Sul's against Brazil and Uruguay's against Argentina. He returned to Italy in 1848 to again fight for Italian independence, leading seven more campaigns, including the spectacular capture of Sicily. During the American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln even offered to make him a general in the Union army.

Presenting Garibaldi as a complex and even contradictory figure, Scirocco shows us the pacifist who spent much of his life fighting; the nationalist who advocated European unification; the republican who served a king; and the man who, although compared by contemporaries to Aeneas and Odysseus, refused honors and wealth and spent his last years as a farmer.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Italy

456 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2005

Reviews

[Tim Parks · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really excellent biography of Giuseppe Garibaldi. He was the kind of man who had such an astonishing life, became so much a myth in his own time, perhaps the most popular figure of the 19th century throughout Europe and even beyond, that it becomes extremely difficult to write about him without either just enthusing on the one hand, or alternatively doing everything you can to break down the myth. Scirocco has got round the problem by doing a lot of new research into the nitty gritty of Garibaldi's life, particularly the years in South America, his discovery of his vocation as a fighter for liberal causes, his experiments with what might be possible, politically and militarily, his setbacks and successes. There are lots of letters, from Garibaldi and people knew him, things you don't find in other biographies. The end result is that the life comes across as both more extraordinary and more believable. Even for those who know nothing of Italy and 19th century European politics, this will still be a fascinating and exciting read.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting life, one that demonstrates the importance of boldness in leadership and in creating a legend. Garibaldi couldn't have been more simple and human, he seemed to fail more than he succeeded, yet he had an extraordinary level of determination, perseverance and self-sacrifice.

"He was not only a warrior...Although he was no strategist and showed little or no interest in organization, he had leadership qualities, "firm expression, rapid decision-making, and resourcefulness." He read a great deal, "but he lacked the basic rudiments in politics as in soldering." He rushed to conclusions without struggling through the intermediate argumentation. Crude notions of democracy, communism, cosmopolitanism, and positivism mixed in his bran...drawing him into contradictions of which he was not aware." However, "with a heart like Garibaldi's a man can certainly permit his brain the odd distraction."

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess this is an academic book about Garibaldi. It certainly goes into more detail than I was looking for.

[Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good reading for travelers to Italy.

[Clayton Brannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read. Well written thoroughly researched account of a man for the ages.

[Dave · Rating 1 out of 5]

Woof.

My review has nothing to do with the subject matter, but all to do with the writing and the editing. I could not wait to be done with this book. For those that like their history stories written in chronological order then this is not the book for you.

If you like to read about topics grouped together when reading a biography about a person's life, then this wouldn't be as bad as I'm making it. For me? I prefer my histories to be linear in thought. Where you get deep into the story about a person during a specific time and then progress through the story as the person progresses through their own life. This story, while maintaining to the specific era of Garibaldi's life, went from his battles in one chapter to the politics focused in another to some other part of his life in the next only to jump back into battles in the subsequent chapter.

The result seemed like a story about a man's adventurous life a mile wide and an inch deep.

[Fausto Lammoglia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una densa biografia che umanizza il mito di Garibaldi, mostrandone i valori incorruttibili e la difficoltà di mantenersi coerente. Molto belli i ritratti che escono di Cavour, Mazzini e Vittorio Emanuele nelle loro relazioni con l’Eroe.

Nonostante la mole enorme è un testo affascinante che, al netto delle compilazioni forse eccessive, incolla il lettore che non potrà non essere colpito da uno dei pilastri del Risorgimento italiano, nonché guerriero della libertà per i più svariati paesi mondiali.

[Andrea Maisano · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Non si può dividerlo dal mito. Lo vedranno passar vivo in mezzo a loro le generazioni venture, sempre che si leveranno per un ideale umano. Sgombrategli il passo: il suo cammino va oltre le nazioni, oltre le generazioni", così Giovanni Bovio parlando di Giuseppe Garibaldi tracciava il forte legame tra l'uomo e il mito. Scirocco, in questa dettagliata biografia dell'eroe dei due mondi, ormai diventata un classico della storiografia sul Risorgimento, approfondisce questo legame narrando una vita che già durante il suo avventuroso svolgimento aveva il sapore di una leggenda. Il ritratto che ne viene fuori non è solo infatti dell'eroe per l'unità nazionale - che comunque rimane uno dei punti fermi della vita del nizzardo - ma di un combattente per la libertà, perfettamente inserito - e in tal senso decisamente interessanti le pagine sul tema del rapporto tra Garibaldi e i movimenti mazziniani, democratici e socialisti - nell'internazionalismo ottocentesco.