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A History of Contemporary Italy: Society and Politics, 1943-1988
From a war-torn and poverty-stricken country, regional and predominantly agrarian, to the success story of recent years, Italy has witnessed the most profound transformation--economic, social and demographic--in its entire history. Yet the other recurrent theme of the period has been the overwhelming need for political reform--and the repeated failure to achieve it. Profes
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Paperback, 592 pages
Published
January 1st 2003
by St. Martin's Griffin
(first published 1989)
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Community Reviews
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POST WAR ITALY
Paul Ginsborg's "A History of Contemporary Italy" begins with the Italians reaping the disastrous rewards of over two decades of Mussolini's rule. The Allies have invaded southern Italy, and on the removal of El Duce the Germans invade from the north. The author expertly portrays the chaotic situation, with an increasingly popular Resistance in the north fighting the Germans who are themselves trying to consolidate their control and stop the Allied forces from battling their way u ...more
Paul Ginsborg's "A History of Contemporary Italy" begins with the Italians reaping the disastrous rewards of over two decades of Mussolini's rule. The Allies have invaded southern Italy, and on the removal of El Duce the Germans invade from the north. The author expertly portrays the chaotic situation, with an increasingly popular Resistance in the north fighting the Germans who are themselves trying to consolidate their control and stop the Allied forces from battling their way u ...more
The book interweaves the economic, political, and societal changes of a 45 period when Italy made the jump from a backward state, where German and allied armies fought and a civil war raged to a modern state with an economy about the same size as Great Britain. Italy had the largest neo fascist party in the west and the largest communist party as well. Throughout all the center-right christian democrats ruled in an uninterrupted fashion, for better or for worse. The book captures the rise of the
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A huge, useful tome of post-war Italian history. Because it's basically a history book, it can be a bit dry and hard to stay focused-on - but kudos to Ginsborg for trying to cram all that info into my tiny brain. I wish I could take this book as a lecture series/course by him. Anyway, just for my own memory, here are my takeaways: well, first there was the war and the occupation by the evil Nazis. That sucked. Partisans were cool. Americans saved everyone (and planted their seeds of control). Th
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Necessarily a bit dry and acronym heavy when dealing with party politics, this Marxist (in the purest, materialist sense) but objective and balanced account of Italy's extraordinary growth and change in the post-war period is otherwise a revelation. From the volatile part the extreme left and extreme right played throughout the era, to the geographical and social divides in a country that began the period in medieval squalor in parts of the South, to the peculiarities of religion, organised crim
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AMAZING. This should have been my high school textbook on Italian history.
Of COURSE the italian communist party was under the guide of the Soviets - and PRECISELY FOR THAT REASON they posed no threat to "italian democracy": in fact, they were a conservative force, restraining the revolutionary impulses of workers and landless peasants. Remember that the Soviets played a very similar role in revolutionary spain...
it also helps to explain a great deal of how the italian state came to be in the dep ...more
Of COURSE the italian communist party was under the guide of the Soviets - and PRECISELY FOR THAT REASON they posed no threat to "italian democracy": in fact, they were a conservative force, restraining the revolutionary impulses of workers and landless peasants. Remember that the Soviets played a very similar role in revolutionary spain...
it also helps to explain a great deal of how the italian state came to be in the dep ...more
Di tutte le monografie storiografiche "mainstream" uscite sulla storia dell'Italia nel secondo dopoguerra, forse questa di Ginsborg è la migliore. Soprattutto nella parte del "boom economico" e nella transizione di fine anni '60 primi anni '70.
Quando, però, si arriva ai pieni anni '70 son dolori, ed è un peccato, ma da uno storico accademico, alla fine degli anni '80, forse non si poteva chiedere di più.
Quando, però, si arriva ai pieni anni '70 son dolori, ed è un peccato, ma da uno storico accademico, alla fine degli anni '80, forse non si poteva chiedere di più.
An enlightening and detailed, if at times a little academic, modern history of Italy. Very well researched and presented with a fair overview of the competing players in this complex history.
Jun 07, 2007
Francesca Lenti
rated it
really liked it
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
italians
Shelves:
history
a very well reaserched book. Accurate and well written.
Italians have a short memory, they should all read this book... funny that the best books about Italy are not written by Italians
Italians have a short memory, they should all read this book... funny that the best books about Italy are not written by Italians
Quasi indispensabile per capire qualcosa del nostro paese. Vorrei tanto leggere il seguito.
Good, but dull and tedious. Read more like a textbook
An ubiqutous read.
A detailed account of Italy from World War II to the end of the Italian First Republic. Mr. Ginsborg covers all the topics from the economic miracle to the year of lead related to terrorism in Italy in the 1960s and 1970s.
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