Italy in the Modern World: Society, Culture, and Identity

Review

“Linda Reeder's accessible yet scholarly book offers a needed alternative to conventional surveys of modern Italy. It successfully integrates the history of gender relations and mobilities into the national narrative, highlighting in particular the importance of migrations in the making of the modern nation. This book should be required reading for all classes on modern Italy, especially those focused on its global and borderless dimensions.” ―Silvana Patriarca, Professor of History, Fordham University, USA

Product Description

Providing a comprehensive history of Italy from around 1800 to the present, Italy in the Modern World traces the social and cultural transformations that defined the lives of Italians during the 19th and 20th century. The book focuses on how social relations (class, gender and race), science and the arts shaped the political processes of unification, state building, fascism and the postwar world.

Split up into four parts covering the making of Italy, the liberal state, war and fascism, and the republic, the text draws on secondary literature and primary sources in order to synthesize current historiographical debates and provide primary documents for classroom use. There are individual chapters on key topics, such as unification, Italians in the world, Italy in the world, science and the arts, fascism, the World Wars, the Cold War, and Italy in the 21st century, as well as a wealth of useful features for students, including:

* Comprehensive bibliographic essays covering each of the four parts
* 23 images and 12 maps

Italy in the Modern World also firmly places both the nation and its people in a wider global context through a distinctly transnational approach. It is essential reading for all students of modern Italian history.

About the Author

Linda Reeder is Associate Professor of History at the University of Missouri, USA. She is the author of Widows in White: Migration and the Transformation of Rural Italian Women (2002).