Storia d'Italia dal Risorgimento ai nostri giorni

by Sergio Romano

Italian

Genres: History, Italy, Nonfiction

504 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Diplomatico, storico e pubblicista italiano (n. Vicenza 1929). Studioso di storia, in particolare di quella italiana e francese tra Ottocento e Novecento, e analista politico, ha ricoperto i più prestigiosi incarichi della carriera diplomatica (la sua ultima missione fu quella di ambasciatore a Mosca fra il 1985 e il 1989, che lo rese testimone privilegiato della fine della guerra fredda). Dal 1998 è editorialista del Corriere della Sera.

Reviews

[withdrawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent political history of the Risorgimento (reunification/unification) of Italy from the 1850s to the 1990s. The writing has a strangely personal feel for a history book as the author gives his analyses of events throughout. This may sound off putting but instead I found that it drew me into the text, even when I found Romano's analysis to be questionable.
Another aspect of the book that could put one off is that Romano provides little context, possibly leaving the reader who has only a high-school/current media knowledge (like me) of Italy at a loss. He avoids this with a well written chronology appended to the end of the book. I would read ahead in the chronology prior to immersing myself in the text. It worked out very well. I came away from this book with the sense that I had a firm grasp of events in Italy over the last 150 years or so.

While not agreeing with all of Romano's analyses, I was fascinated by the problems that have continuously beset Italy. I have, since childhood, been taken by the fact that Italy was undergoing its Risorgimento in the same era that my own country, Canada, was undergoing its process of Confederation. It is interesting to read about the various myths in play in what now is Italy at the time of the Risorgimento. Canada, and I would guess most other colonies of the British Empire, only had the myth of Britannia and it has just faded away. Italy kept their myths of the Roman Empire and Royalty alive for a long time. It would seem that these founding myths have led to a lot of issues.

What Italy and Canada do have in common is the split between industrial regions and resource regions. I did not get a strong sense from Romano as to why, despite many attempts to correct the situation, the more rural regions to the south have not been able to share in the wealth of the northern regions. Regional economic disparities are always an issue in both countries. I suspect that sharing the wealth, no matter who's on top, is what has held Canada together and away from extremes. We have lots of ups and downs but few crises. (Let's not speak of language issues here.)

Enough of my rambling. If you want a review of the book, read Bertrand's excellent review. That's why I read the book.

[Bertrand · Rating 4 out of 5]

Romano does his best, and without any snark or spite, to take into account all criticisms levelled against those actors, by the left, the far-left or the right, and find some truth in all of them. The command and the spectrum that Romano displays would satisfy most academic standards: there is, however, something else, a kind of conspicuous individuality in his analyses, which make the book read somewhat like journalism, or like introspection. That is a trait I find rarely in history books, in particular in those with such a broad focus. I am not sure whether I like it or not, but at any rate that makes for a highly readable account.
Romano is keen to depart from the marxist interpretation (Gramsci) as well as the romantic-liberal ones (Croce), but in the last instance shows more sympathy for the Destra Storica than for left:
To Romano, Cavour and his minions, for flawed, took the hard decisions which alone could ensure unification and after that national integrity. When the Left came to power, the coalition-politics he could forgive to the founding fathers were unforgivably perpetuated out of mere opportunism.
The last part of the book concern itself with Italy since the Second World War, until the mid-seventies (the time the book was written) – the traditional liberal parties either disappeared under Mussolini or faded away along with Giustizia e Libertà, leaving only the communists/socialists (in their various permutations) and the Christian Democracy as serious contenders.
Romano has some interesting insights in both factions, although the rich history of the left is better treated by Milza – he does document that the more “intransigeant” catholics (socially conservative) within Christian Democracy also constituted the economic left-wing of the party, down to the seventies. His overall assesment of the post-war period is rather pessimistic however: that might be understandable given the economic context he is writing in, but he ultimately blames the return to “transformismo” in the fifties on the very structure of the two main parties: he finds that both the Communist Party and the Christian Democrats have remained foreign to the risorgimental ideals, and are “fideists”, to whom orthodoxy and belonging are more important than concrete political projects.

[Marc Lamot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great read. Especially a history of ideas, no real political chronology. Aimed at rejecting the myths, especially in the Marxist history writing. Romano has a striking eye for continuities. The Postwar period is only meagerly treated. Central these: more than 100 years after the unification Italian politics still is focused on the formation of a unitary Italian society and State.

[Myriam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dommage qu'il ne dépasse pas le début des années 1980. Les analyses sont intéressantes et faciles à suivre pour les non-initiés aux subtilités politiques italiennes.
Lu comme complément à un cours universitaire sur l'histoire contemporaine italienne avec L'Italie de 1815 à nos jours, de Jean-Dominique Durand.