The Historical Review/La Revue Historique

Vol. 15, 2018

Review of: Axel Körner, America in Italy: The United States in the Political Thought and Imagination of the Risorgimento, 1763–1865

Pagratis Gerasimos National and Kapodistrian University of Athens https://doi.org/10.12681/hr.20459

To cite this article:

Pagratis, G. (2019). Review of: Axel Körner, America in Italy: The United States in the Political Thought and Imagination of the Risorgimento, 1763–1865. The Historical Review/La Revue Historique, 15, 330-332. doi:https://doi.org/10.12681/hr.20459

http://epublishing.ekt.gr | e-Publisher: EKT | Downloaded at 27/09/2021 00:22:56 | Axel Körner, America in Italy: The United States in the Political Thought and Imagination of the Risorgimento, 1763–1865, Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2017, xix + 351 pp.

Recently, historians who are not Italian state. With the introduction of military have taken an interest in the Italian conscription, the French trained the Risorgimento for reasons related, among Italians, who had experienced centuries others, to the global aspects of a lengthy of military decadence, to use weapons process involving people, state interests and demonstrate their value. Thanks to and ideas of various non-Italian origin. all these achievements, a good part of the Inevitably, research has focused, Italians would certainly agree with what among other fields, on the political origins Carducci wrote in 1884 for the French: of the Risorgimento, in other words, the “They armed us, disciplined us and permit political ideas and the institutions that us to look in the eyes of our old masters.” were used as a model or starting point This does not signify that after in the long-lasting course during which the end of the Napoleonic period the the theories for the Italian struggle for Italians – the few intellectuals, university national independence took shape. students, bourgeoisie and other actors In this field there are already several in full awareness of the stakes – had “certainties” that historians have to face. agreed on a defined course regarding The historiography of the Risorgimento, the national issue. After the failure of especially the most recent, has detected the liberal movements in 1820–21 and the beginning of the procedures 1830–31, as well as of those organised by that would lead to Italian national Giuseppe Mazzini, the Italians who had independence in the dissemination and adopted liberal ideas agreed with him subsequent implementation of the ideas on one point only: the need to remove of the French Revolution in the Italian foreign rulers. peninsula during the 20-year period There were several suggestions on between 1796 and 1815 known as the how to achieve this goal, and they did not Napoleonic Wars. The grouping of many always converge. During the relatively Italian satellites in a few large states long-lasting dialogue in which notable obtained by Napoleon was very significant Italian thinkers and actors participated in strengthening this belief, which proved (Vincenzo Gioberti, Giuseppe Mazzini, to the Italians that it was possible to break Carlo Cattaneo, Cesare Balbo, etc.), the the old political and economic barriers prospect of a federation on the Italian and create an independent nation- peninsula coexisted with that of na-

The Historical Review / La Revue Historique Section of Neohellenic Research / Institute of Historical Research Volume XV (2018)

http://epublishing.ekt.gr | e-Publisher: EKT | Downloaded at 27/09/2021 00:22:56 | Axel Korner, America in Italy 331 tional unification, though with different The endpoint of the book is defined by proposals as to the means of achieving the death of Abraham Lincoln (1865). This those ends (revolutionary methodology, event, coinciding with Italian unification, moderate-diplomatic approach), the had a decisive influence on the political preferred form of government (monar- culture of unified Italy. At that time, the chy, republic) and the people who would US – marked by a violent civil war, slavery play the key roles in leadership (Savoy, and resistance to it, and the murder of popes), etc. its president – was presented in Italy as In the discussion on the develop- an example that was incompatible with mental course of Italian political thought European political and social structures. during the long phase leading to Italian Negative attitudes towards the American unification, Axel Körner’s book has come example would grow in the late nineteenth to enrich the literature with a new pro- century under the weight of mass Italian posal: the examination of the influence of emigration to the US, with resentment felt America’s political formation during the in the new country because of the way in American Revolution and the US consti- which it was organised. Nevertheless, as tution on modern Italian political thought emphasised characteristically, Lincoln’s from 1763 to 1865. funeral would be used as the blueprint for The extreme time limits of the book the funeral of the national hero of Italy, already arouses interest. The starting Giuseppe Mazzini (1872). point is pinpointed on a date six whole The above points already reveal the years before the birth of Napoleon main working hypothesis of the author Bonaparte, yet coinciding with the – how developments prior to the French end of the Seven Years’ War and the Revolution also contributed to the beginning of the struggle for American shaping of Italian political thought – with independence and the preparations a focus on the American example. For for the American constitution. The this, Körner examines how political and conflict between the American colonial social developments in North America settlers and the British also captured were understood by Italian intellectual, the attention of Italian thinkers and political and artistic circles – both the artists, who reflected the events in their ones considered as positive (American own works in their own way. Körner independence, the constitution) as well dedicates the first chapter to one of as the less flattering ones such as slavery, them, Carlo Botta, the most famous the civil war, Lincoln’s assassination, etc. Italian historian of the time, who wrote In these terms, the American experience one of the first histories of the American was not to be emulated unilaterally. It War of Independence,1 divided into four functioned as a mirror through which volumes and fourteen books. societies such as the Italian one, with their own particular historical features, experimented on how they wanted to see 1 Storia della Guerra dell’indipendenza themselves in the future. degli Stati Uniti d’America, Paris: D. Colas, The author bases his synthesis on a 1809. large number of primary and second-

http://epublishing.ekt.gr | e-Publisher: EKT | Downloaded at 27/09/2021 00:22:56 | 332 Gerassimos D. Pagratis

ary sources from a variety of fields, such The final result rewards the effort, as as historiography, newspapers, musical the main questions are answered quite theatre, painting and any other cultural fully. In addition, this well-written book, product reflecting developments over- which has the added advantage of being seas – well-known sources but basically an enjoyable read, acquaints the English- revisited through the appropriate ques- speaking audience with some of the most tions required by intellectual and cul- significant Italian thinkers who played tural history. a defining role in the transformation The transnational perspective has of the Italian peninsula from a group a central role in the work of Körner, of autonomous states into a unified professor of modern history at UCL and political entity. Director of its Centre for Transnational Studies. As he notes: “transnationalizing Gerassimos D. Pagratis US history involves understanding events in American history through their National and Kapodistrian University of perception and their impact abroad, Athens which informs the ways in which the world reacts to the United States”.

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