Italy Since 1800: A Nation In The Balance? (the Present And The Past)

Since Unification, Italy Has Grown From A Backward Agrarian Society Into One Of The World's Leading Industrial Powers. Yet Her History Exhibits Spectacular Disunities, Inconsistencies And Paradoxes. Dominated By Political Catholicism, She Has Also Been Home To Fascism, The Mafia, And The Largest Communist Movement Outside The Eastern Bloc. Her Politics Are Notoriously Fissiparous - Yet Policy Itself Never Changes. Until Now. This Timely, Absorbing And Richly Illustrated Account Of The Historical Development Of The Italian Nation-state Traces The Main Paradoxes Of What `italy' Has Been, And Questions What She May Become. Appearing At A Critical Moment In Italy's History, The Book Offers A Timely Exploration Of The Current Tensions At The Heart Of The Country. It Explains What 'italy' Has Been, And Why; And Poses The Essential Questions About What It May Now Become. For, As Roger Absalom Reveals, Italy Is One Of Modern History's Most Fascinating Paradoxes. Since Unification Little More Than A Century Ago, It Has Grown From A Largely Backward Agrarian Country Into One Of The World's Seven Leading Industrial Powers, With An Economy And Average Living Standards That Had Outpaced Those Of Great Britain By The 1980s. Yet These Achievements Exist Alongside No Less Spectacular Disunities, Inconsistences And Contradictions. With Fascism Still A Living Memory, Italy's Domestic Politics Have Been Dominated By Political Catholicism Since 1945. Yet It Has Also Been Home To The World Power Of The Mafia; To The Largest And Most Influential Communist Movement Outside The Soviet And Maoist Blocs; And To The Most Prolonged And Effective Campaign Of Terrorism Mounted In Any Western Country Since The Second World War. It Has Developed The Largest, Best Adapted And Most Successful Networks Of Small And Medium Enterprises In Any Western Economy - But At The Same Time Its Welfare State Is More Open To Corruption Than Any Other. Its Political System, Too, Has Been A Byword For Instability And Corruption: Hundreds Of Its Leading Politicians And Businessmen Are Under Investigation On Charges That Range From Electoral Malpractice To Collusion In Murder And Terrorism With Organised Crime.. Recent Developments In Italian Political Life Suggest That The Nation Is At A Highly Significant Turning Point, As The Northern Leagues, In A Strange Alliance With A Media Mogul Turned 'man Of Providence' And With The Neo-fascists, Swept To Electoral Success In 1994 On A Tide Of Popular Revulsion Against The 'old Politics'. What Shape The 'new Politics' Will Assume, However, Is Still Far From Clear. As So Often In The Past, Italy Has Again Become A Political Laboratory; And - Not For The First Time In Modern History, As Roger Absalom Reminds Us - The Rest For Europe Would Be Well Advised To Keep A Close Eye On The Outcome.--book Jacket. The Origins Of Modern Italy: The Dream Of Reason And The Dream Of Unity -- The Making Of Italy By Diplomacy, Politics And War -- The 'historic Compromises' Of The Liberal State -- From Liberal State To Fascism -- The Fascist Movement And The Seizure Of Power, 1919-1925 -- The Fascist Regime, 1926-1945 -- Fascism And Aggression, 1934-1945 -- 1943-1945 As The Turning Point Of Modern Italian History -- The Consolidation Of Republican Italy -- 'stable Instability' And Economic Progress, 1953-1968 -- 1968-1969 And The 'years Of The Bullet' -- Italy In The 1980s And 1990s. Roger Absalom. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.