Aristocrats in Bourgeois Italy: The Piedmontese Nobility, 1861–1930 (Cambridge Studies in Italian History and Culture)

This book provides a full account of the Italian nobility in the post-unification era. It challenges interpretations which have stressed the rapid fusion of old and new elites in Italy and the marginality of the nobility after 1861, and instead highlights the continuing economic strength, social power and political influence of Italy's most prominent regional aristocracy. In Piedmont, the nobles were able to develop more indirect forms of influence to satisfy their hunger for leadership based on something older than constitutions or electoral politics. They remained a largely separate group within local society, distinguished by their attachment to the values of lineage, military service, landownership, and social exclusivity. This aristocratic exclusivity and influence survived the agricultural depression of the nineteenth century, before succumbing finally to the devastating effects of World War I. This book provides the first full account of the Italian Sobility in the post-unification era, and challenges recent interpretations that have stressed the rapid fusion of old and new elites by highlighting the continuing economic strength, social power and political influence of Italy's most prominent regional aristocracy. In Piedmont, the nobles developed more indirect forms of influence, while remaining a separate and exclusive group with limited social contacts with industrial or managerial elites, until World War I transformed their old way of life. This book provides the first full account of the Italian nobility in the post-unification era, and challenges recent interpretations that have stressed the rapid fusion of old and new elites by highlighting the continuing economic strength, social power and political influence of Italy's most prominent regional aristocracy. In Piedmont nobles developed more indirect forms of influence, while remaining a separate and exclusive group with limited social contacts with industrial or managerial elites, until World War I transformed their old way of life. This is a full account of the Italian nobility in the post-unification era. It challenges interpretations which have stressed the rapid fusion of old and new elites by highlighting the continuing economic strength, social power and political influence of Italy's most prominent regional aristocracy. A remarkably consistent image of Piedmont's titled nobility emerges from contemporary accounts of both the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, an image which suggests they were respected, but seldom loved. Anthony L. Cardoza. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.