The History of Contemporary Italy 1943-2019 (Italian and Italian American Studies)

This book offers a history of contemporary Italy from the collapse of Mussolini to the present, placing this major Euro-Mediterranean country in a wider geo-political perspective. It examines how Italian history and politics developed in relation to - and were shaped by - the international context, from the Cold War and NATO to the European integration process and the global challenges of 1989. Umberto Gentiloni Silveri highlights all major events, structural limits, contradictions and conflicts influencing Italian democracy and the political system until today. He explores the continuous tension between 'stabilization' and 'conflict', between the promise of an innovative and evolutionary representative democracy on the one hand and the constraints of a political system conditioned by structural limits and old contradictions on the other. Umberto Gentiloni Silveri is Full Professor of Contemporary History at Sapienza University of Rome, Italy Contents Note to the English Edition Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: The Postwar Era Summer 1943: A Theater of War Democracy, Referendum, Constitution National and International “A Center Party Moving towards the Left” Chapter 3: The Reasons for a Miracle In the Golden Age The Control Room Striped Shirts Détente, Council, Dialogue Chapter 4: The 1970s The Long 1968 The End of the Innocence In mezzo al guado (At Mid-Stream) The Historic Compromise and National Solidarity Chapter 5: The Funeral of the Republic Generation Against The Longest Day The Shadow of Moro Riflusso (Disengagement) Chapter 6: The Beginning of the End From Confrontation to Conflict A Slow Agony A Strange Modernity Duels without Winners Chapter 7: The Collapse Unforgettable'89 Tangentopoli The Mafia and Politics The Media and Power Chapter 8: The Failed Transition An Imperfect Bipolarism Politics and Anti-politics Old Vices and New Virtues Eurozone Chapter 9: Between Rebirth and Decline A Difficult Normality Twilight The First One Hundred and Fifty Years Europe and the Mediterranean Chapter 10: Conclusions Index