Italy's Social Revolution : Charity and Welfare From Liberalism to Fascism

The study of welfare can illuminate debate about many themes in modern Italian history - the question of the success or failure of nation-building, the question of the relative strengths and weaknesses of the state, the question of continuity and discontinuity from liberalism to fascism, and the question of the actual impact of fascist rule on Italian society. This book aims to contribute to scholarship on the social history of modern Italy by examining welfare thinking and policies from the nineteenth century to the fascist period. Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 8 List of Tables......Page 9 Acknowledgements......Page 10 Abbreviations......Page 12 Preface......Page 14 Part I The Social Mission of Nineteenth- Century Liberalism......Page 18 Introduction: The Old Charitable Order and the Promise of Good Government......Page 20 1 Reform and the Risorgimento......Page 31 2 State and Society in Liberal Italy, 1862–1890......Page 53 Part II State Welfare in the Age of the Masses......Page 82 3 The Rise of Giolitti’s ‘Insurer State’......Page 84 4 Fascism’s New Deal: Social Insurance under a ‘Totalitarian’ State......Page 113 5 Racial Regeneration through Welfare: The National Organization for the Protection of Motherhood and Infancy under Fascism......Page 146 Part III The Problem of Child Abandonment from Liberalism to Fascism......Page 190 Introduction: Charity, the State, and Compassion: The Modernization of Social Values......Page 192 6 Outcast Infants and the Liberal State......Page 200 7 Religion, Science, and Beneficence......Page 219 8 The Illegitimacy Campaign under Fascism......Page 246 9 From Public Beneficence to Public Welfare: The Roman Experiment, 1927–1938......Page 266 10 An Italian Social Revolution?......Page 306 Notes and references......Page 320 Bibliography......Page 383 Index......Page 406 "The apparent failure of the liberal nation-building project, the structural weaknesses of the Italian state, the chronic reality of 'backwardness', the persistent gap between state and society, and the limited reach of fascist rule, are long-familiar and still important subjects of history enquiry. This book examines these grand themes in the history of modern Italy from an entirely new perspective. It is the first study of modern Italian social politics - that realm of ideas, values, and policies concerned with improvements to the welfare of the people - over the longue duree. This book begins with the premise that though they have been rather neglected by historians, social politics are just as important as high politics are to our understanding of modern Italy The study of welfare can illuminate debate about some of the grand themes in modern Italian history - the question of the success or failure of nation-building; the question of the relative strengths and weaknesses of the state; and the question of continuity and discontinuity from liberalism to fascism. It can also deepen understanding of one of the most pressing problems confronting historians of Italian fascism - the question of the actual impact of fascist rule on Italian society. Despite this, surprisingly few scholars have done any work on this important topic. This book aims to contribute to scholarship on the social history of modern Italy by examining welfare thinking and policies from the nineteenth century to the fascist period. 'Every well-regulated society abhors idlers and laggards,' Lodovico Antonio Muratori wrote in his Treatise on Charity, a work published in 1723 whose aim was to counsel the faithful into giving more generously to the poor and needy. This study aims to contribute to scholarship on the social history of modern Italy by examining welfare thinking and policies from the 19th century to the fascist period Study of social questions can help us to understand more fully the crisis of liberalism and the impact of fascism."--Jacket