Risorgimento: The History of Italy from Napoleon to Nation State

by Lucy Riall

A provocative and readable examination of the Risorgimento and the Italian unification, incorporating the latest research.

Genres: History, Italy, Nonfiction

200 pages, Paperback

First published November 27, 2008

About the author

Formerly Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of London, Lucy Riall is a professor in the Department of History and Civilisation at the European University Institute in Florence.

Reviews

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent dissection of the process of Italian unification. Probably not for the lay reader since Lucy spends much time discussing historiography and its inefficiencies. Takes the approach that since economic and political unity was actually non-existent, despite the best efforts of Italian patriot and Marxist historians, one has to return to the old standard, pure and simple cultural/linguistic universality (kind of).

[Bertrand · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is probably the best of the risorgimento histories I have read so far: not only does the author provide us with a concise and competent summary of the facts, but she also examines with some critical depth the historiography on the subject, up to the latest developments. This allows her to develop a “three periods” historiographical model which departs from the usual opposition Marxist / Liberal: instead she sees first a “classical” period were Gramsci, Croce or Mack Smith gather around the assumption, discrete or not, of historical progress. Follows a “revisionist” wave which recognized that the restoration regimes, for example, attempted modernization no less than their successors. Last come the “cultural turn” school which reassesses the role of nationalism, once discarded by the revisionists as lingering memorabilia of the “classical period”, now reconditioned as a force not political, but essentially cultural.
Riall’s command of the relevant literature is impressive, ranging, as culturalist accounts do, from gender or popular culture, to the more rigorous territories of economic histories. She keeps the factual accounts to a minimum and her weaving in of history and historiography make for a highly entertaining read.

[Antoninus · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author provides a very good synthesis on what's been researched and said so far, then builds her own narrative upon it. It's a very good, scientific book, very in-depth - in fact, sometimes painfully so. I wouldn't recommend it to someone who isn't deep into the theory of history and history of Risorgimento as there is a lot of historiography discussed and the text is filled with specialised vocabulary and confusingly deep analysis. Myself I didn't enjoy the read to give it a 5 star rating, but the quality of the job done doesn't let me rate the book any lower.

[Supriyo Chaudhuri · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very succinct introduction to the history of Risorgimento with a focus on the cultural and linguistic ideas of nationalism and how it played a role in the Italian unification.