DOCSLIB.ORG

{DOWNLOAD} the Force of Destiny: a History of Italy Since 1796

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
{DOWNLOAD} the Force of Destiny: a History of Italy Since 1796 THE FORCE OF DESTINY: A HISTORY OF ITALY SINCE 1796 PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Christopher Duggan | 704 pages | 01 Jul 2008 | Penguin Books Ltd | 9780141013909 | English | London, United Kingdom The Force of Destiny: A History of Italy Since by Christopher Duggan He has written several books on modern Italian history, including History of Sicily, with M. Finley and D. For the latest books, recommendations, offers and more. By signing up, I confirm that I'm over View all newsletter. For more on our cookies and changing your settings click here. Strictly Necessary cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions. See More. Analytics cookies help us to improve our website by collecting and reporting information on how you use it. These cookies may be set by us or by third-party providers whose services we have added to our pages. Preference and Feature cookies allow our website to remember choices you make, such as your language preferences and any customisations you make to pages on our website during your visit. Targeting cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you and your interests. They perform functions like preventing the same content from reappearing, ensuring ads are displayed and, in some cases, selecting content based on your interests. Paperback Features Find your next read Most viewed Most viewed Best first lines in fiction Best book club books Prize judges on how to read more must-read classic books Must-reads of Sign up for our newsletter Events Podcasts Apps. Children's Children's 0 - 18 months 18 months - 3 years 3 - 5 years 5 - 7 years 7 - 9 years 9 - 12 years View all children's. Puffin Ladybird. Authors A-Z. Featured Authors. Contact us Contact us Offices Media contacts Catalogues. Gifts for bibliophiles. Penguin Shop Penguin Shop Book bundles. Penguin gifts. Writing workshops. View all. As a one-volume history of Italy, you can't go wrong with this book. Fantastically well-written, incisive analysis, a thorough examination of the source material and a fine introduction to the wide array of problems that have plagued, and continue to plague Italian society. Dec 07, Czarny Pies rated it really liked it Shelves: european-history. The Force of Destiny is not a history of Italy, it is rather a history of the idea of Italy as held by the political and cultural elites of the region. Facts about the region which was unified into the Kingdom of Italy in are only alluded to when it is necessary to explain a change in this idea. Duggan writes in his preface: "This book ceases to examine how, under the impact of the Napoleon invasion and the mixture of their optimism and resentment that this engendered, an initially small gr The Force of Destiny is not a history of Italy, it is rather a history of the idea of Italy as held by the political and cultural elites of the region. Duggan writes in his preface: "This book ceases to examine how, under the impact of the Napoleon invasion and the mixture of their optimism and resentment that this engendered, an initially small group of men and women began to promote the idea of an Italian nation. He even provides a very brilliant analysis of Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio. As an undergraduate, this book which lacks any economic, demographic or sociologic analysis would have made me purple with rage. As a retired person who loves to go to the opera, I enjoyed it immensely. The problem with the book is that Duggan seems to feel that the world ended when Mussolini died. He states: "The approach the country's problems of the generation of the Risorgimento retained a powerful allure long after unification in It reached its apogee with fascism. Thus only 60 pages are devoted to the period from to In contrast, Mussolini's two decades get pages. Mussolini after all was poet with a vision. Those that have followed him have been prosaic in the extreme. Whatever its faults, The Force of Destiny is guaranteed to please fans of Italian opera, futurist art and neorealsimo cinema. If you are one, then read this book. Oct 19, Jim Puskas rated it it was ok Shelves: history. A pretty good reference book, a bit dry but fairly comprehensive, endeavoring to untangle the complexities of Italian history from the time of the Napoleonic invasion until almost the end of the 20th century. It therefore clearly covers a great deal of territory and does so in an even-handed manner, which is no small achievement, given the degree of passionate rivalry, internecine warfare and general skullduggery that characterized much of that period. That said, the high drama of the Risorgimen A pretty good reference book, a bit dry but fairly comprehensive, endeavoring to untangle the complexities of Italian history from the time of the Napoleonic invasion until almost the end of the 20th century. That said, the high drama of the Risorgimento, the protracted and bitter struggle between the Church and the secular world, the topsy-turvy adventurism of successive Italian regimes leading up to and during the two Great Wars, all of that I believe merited a more colorful and even a light-hearted approach, to capitalize on the sheer outrageousness of many of the players and their adventures. There is surely the stuff of great theater here but the scholarly Duggan seems not to have noticed it. In a nutshell: Long on facts, short on entertainment. Sep 04, Heidi rated it it was ok Shelves: , history , history-european , nonfiction , topics-war , topics-violence , topics-racism , topics-poverty , topics-capitalism , topics- colonialism. It took me two months to read this. I'm normally a very fast reader. This was a slog. I did not enjoy the book, though there were sections that were interesting and engaging. Mostly, reading this felt like work. It seemed heavy on analysis of events and, in some places, light on the historical facts behind those events. This was my first time attempting to dive into Italian history, and I found portions of it to be confusing because of how quickly the author glossed over details that were, in ap It took me two months to read this. This was my first time attempting to dive into Italian history, and I found portions of it to be confusing because of how quickly the author glossed over details that were, in appears, crucial to really understanding his analysis. It also was just incredibly dry in many places. I found the chapters on the world wars, Italian colonialism in North and Eastern Africa, and the rise of fascism to be more interesting. But those were probably not coincidentally topics of which I already had some knowledge. I wonder if the rest of would have been more interesting if I were more familiar with the less recent history. Ultimately I do not recommend this book. Jul 25, Fred Gorrell rated it really liked it Shelves: nonfiction , history-geography. This encyclopedic description of the history of Italy, from the invasion of Napoleon through and beyond WWII, is written in an engaging style. The book provides an opportunity to contrast Italy's modern development with those of other emerging industrialized nations. Selected as background reading to prepare for a summer vacation in Italy, it provided a wealth of information that informed much of the sight-seeing we did. Jul 05, Converse rated it liked it Shelves: history , non-fiction. Emphasizes the frequent fear among Italian nationalists that their fellow citizens lack sufficient identification with the state and public spirit to allow a united Italy to persist. Mar 10, Alex rated it really liked it. Great history from until unification. Decent job on s and s. Rest of the book is a bit dry especially from s until Mussolini. Apr 11, Paula rated it liked it. For a class; helpful. For reading for pleasure Jun 30, Margaret Walker rated it it was amazing. My parents-in-law fought with the Italian partisans and my mother went to school in Mussolini's Italy, so I was interested to read Dr Duggan's book. Italian modern history is very confronting. There are Italian restaurants all over the world because of the number of Italians who wanted to leave Italy. Bear in mind, one, that Fascism glorifies violence and shuns humanitarian values. Then, two, that the rise of Mussolini and the consequent Italian atrocities in Ethiopia, Libya, Yugoslavia and Greec My parents-in-law fought with the Italian partisans and my mother went to school in Mussolini's Italy, so I was interested to read Dr Duggan's book. Then, two, that the rise of Mussolini and the consequent Italian atrocities in Ethiopia, Libya, Yugoslavia and Greece didn't arrive in history fully formed. They had their roots in the Risorgimento, at the beginning of the book. We have Churchill and Roosevelt to thank for letting them off, Yugoslavia and communism notwithstanding. Africa wasn't communist and neither was Greece. I think Britain and America favoured Italy and that the racial mindsets so prevalent between the wars encouraged them to do so. The modern Italy you see on your TV screens is a creation of the west who poured money into the country after the war and set up the government they wanted. I discovered all this by reading 'The Force of Destiny' so, if you feel depressed afterwards, remember, I warned you. Apr 06, Jonathan Keogh rated it it was ok.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Issue 6 2008
    Humanities Research Centre newsletter issue six Belief and Unbelief in the Early Modern Period From 6 to 19 July 2008, sixteen pre-selected Northern American and British medieval Cistercian monastery which became the home of the Leigh family postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers gathered at Warwick University to in 1561, illustrated the fate of religious houses following the Dissolution of debate Belief and Unbelief in the Early Modern Period. The interdisciplinary the Monasteries under Henry VIII. The Participants also toured Kenilworth Residential Workshop was the capstone event of a three-year programme of Castle: although the Castle goes back to medieval times, its links with collaboration between Warwick’s Centre for the Study of Queen Elizabeth I make it a striking witness to the period the Renaissance and the Center for the Renaissance of the Workshop Participants at of the English Reformation. Coughton Court Newberry Library in Chicago. The entire cycle, The Spaces In order to concretize the life world of Elizabeth Isham of the Past: Renaissance and Early Modern Cultures in (1609-1654), whose remarkable manuscript diary is Transatlantic Contexts, benefited from a generous grant infused with the preoccupations of Puritan culture, Dr of $323,000 from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Clarke led us to the Northamptonshire Record Office, featured three distinct series of events, held alternately at where we transcribed original documents relating to Warwick and in Chicago. Isham and her relatives. The group moved on to Lamport Two one-day conferences (Gender and Belief, 9 Hall, the seat of the Isham family from 1560 to 1976.
    [Show full text]
  • Tuesday March 2014
    tueSDay 25 MaRCh 2014 Claudia Roden Philip Davis talks to Donald Sloan e Food of Italy e Literary agenda: Reading and the Reader 10am / Corpus Christi College / £11 10am / Bodleian: Divinity School / £11 World-renowned cookery writer Editor and academic Professor Philip Davis defends the Claudia Roden talks to the head value of reading serious literature and argues that of Oxford Gastronomica Donald Italian Day literary thinking should be brought into the ordinary Sloan about her freshly updated thinking of the world, particularly at a time when the classic work, The Food of Italy. It is arts and humanities are under threat. Reading and the 25 years since the first publication of the book and, Reader is one of an Oxford University Press series of while many of the recipes remain fresh and timeless, short polemical monographs about the importance of Roden has updated more than 30 per cent to fit literature and of reading in the wider world and about modern tastes and included some new ones. For the the state of literary education inside schools and first time, the book is fully illustrated and includes universities. photos of recipes and of local Italian scenes. Davis is a professor of English literature, editor of The Roden was born and brought up in Cairo. Her Reader magazine and director of the Centre for bestselling A Book of Middle Eastern Food revolutionised Research into Reading (CRILS) at the University of attitudes to the cuisine of the Middle East when it was Liverpool. He has published widely on Shakespeare, published in 1968.
    [Show full text]
  • A Concise History of Italy 9:50 26 Cavour and the Triumph of the Moderates 9:24 2 the Fashion for Historical Writing in Italy
    A CONCISE NON- HISTORY of FICTION UNABRIDGED CHRISTOPHER DUGGAN ITALY Read by Jonathan Keeble Since its formation in 1861, Italy has struggled to develop an effective political system and a secure sense of national identity. Christopher Duggan’s acclaimed introduction charts the country’s history from the fall of the Roman Empire in the West to the present day, and surveys the difficulties Italy has faced during the last two centuries in creating a unified country. Duggan successfully weaves together political, economic, social and cultural history, and stresses the alternation between materialist and idealist programmes for forging a nation state. The audiobook includes coverage of 19th- and 20th-century Italy, as well as a section devoted to Italy in the 21st century. This is the ideal resource for those seeking an authoritative and comprehensive introduction to Italian history. Jonathan Keeble is an award-winning actor who combines his audio work with a busy theatre and TV career. Much in demand, his voice work ranges from the voice of God in the Sistine Chapel to the Angel of Total running time: 11:54:00 Death in the film Hellboy 2, with all stops in between. He has featured View our catalogue online at n-ab.com/cat in over 700 radio plays for the BBC, appearing in everything from Shakespeare to Sherlock Holmes and Dr Who; he also played evil Owen in The Archers. He has recorded over 400 audiobooks, for which he has won multiple awards. 1 A Concise History of Italy 9:50 26 Cavour and the Triumph of the Moderates 9:24 2 The fashion for historical writing in Italy..
    [Show full text]
  • OBITUARY Christopher Duggan 1957-2015
    Modern Italy, 2016 Vol. 21, No. 1, 3–6, doi:10.1017/mit.2016.2 OBITUARY Christopher Duggan 1957-2015 At the time of his death on 2 November 2015, Christopher Duggan had been Chair of the Association for the Study of Modern Italy (ASMI) for barely one year. In this short time, he engaged in a variety of initiatives, establishing new links with other British and Italian scholarly associations and organising a symposium with colleagues in France. He also organised a conference in Oxford on Italy and the First World War. His tragic loss has been deeply felt by his many students, his colleagues and his friends. Those who had the task of communicating the sad news to the academic world received messages of sympathy which testify to the affection and the esteem with which he was regarded. Many young researchers fondly recalled his generosity in giving them his time and support, often corresponding with them long after meeting them at a conference or summer school and writing references for travel grants and scholarships. One remembered ‘this gentle scholar who, with his simple smile, immediately put me at ease, took time to talk with me about the Risorgimento and invited me to his home.’ Another wrote: ‘To me, he was both a brilliant sounding board for my work and a wonderful human being who went out of his way to encourage a young researcher who was trying to make his way’. His fellow Italianists admired his scholarship and his kindness. A founder member of ASMI, Paul Furlong, remembered Christopher as ‘a gentle, courteous and thoughtful colleague, a rigorous scholar who was devoted to his subject, and a person without “side”, to use an old-fashioned phrase’.
    [Show full text]
  • "Our Myth Is the Nation"
    "Our Myth Is the Nation" The Roots of Italian Unification in the Period from 1748-1821 By Christian Rice Senior Thesis Department of History April 23, 2010 11 CONTENTS Abstract Acknowledgements iv I. Introduction 1 II. The State of Italy Preceding Napoleonic Rule: 1748-1796 7 A Divided Peninsula 8 Cultural Enfeeblement through Foreign Domination 13 The Emergence of a National Spirit in Opposition to Foreign Rule 17 The Nation as Necessary Defense 19 Conclusion 21 III. Napoleon's Reign in Italy: 1796-1815 24 The Italian Political Landscape Preceding French Occupation 25 The First Phase of Italian Occupation in Italy: 1796-1799 30 Napoleon's Return to Italy: 1800-1814 32 Napoleon's Effect on Regionalization 35 French Impact on Culture 37 The Evolution of Patriotism under French Rule 39 Conclusion 41 IV. From Napoleon to Revolution: 1815-1821 42 The Continued Influence of France on Italian Politics 44 The Emergence of the Restoration States 46 Defending against Powers from Abroad 49 Austria's Early Influence on the Italian Peninsula 51 The Growth of Dissent: Secret Fraternities and the Fear of Revolution 53 Revolution, the Congress of Troppau, and the Congress of Verona 57 Conclusion 59 V. Conclusion 61 Bibliography 64 iii ABSTRACT This study examines the social, political, and cultural conditions of the Italian peninsula from 1748 to 1821 in order to explain how Italy's history of regionalism and foreign domination contributed to the multifaceted national rhetoric of the Risorgimento. It is important to recognize that Italian unification resulted from divergent forces and that the celebrated heroes of the Risorgimento — Giuseppe Garibaldi, Camillo Cavour, and Giuseppe Mazzini — fought for unique reasons and held contrasting visions of Italian unity.
    [Show full text]
  • Cultures and Contexts: Modern Italy NYU Core Curriculum, Fall 2013 Prof
    Cultures and Contexts: Modern Italy NYU Core Curriculum, Fall 2013 Prof. Merjian, Tues/Thurs 11-12:15 This course examines the culture of modern Italy: a nation younger than the United States, yet steeped in all manner of millennial traditions, linguistic dialects, and regional artistic and economic customs. “We have made Italy; we must now make Italians.” Thus declared the politician and writer Massimo d’Azeglio following the country’s belated unification in 1861. How has Italy attempted to “make Italians” over the last century? What forms of culture could unify a people so diverse in origins and aspirations? Has the country managed to transform itself from a “geographic idea” to a cultural reality? Aside from commonplaces – rolling hills, historical landmarks, beloved cuisine, fashion runways – what are the bel paese’s most salient cultural characteristics, and why do they matter? The course proceeds chronologically, and thus provides a basic overview of modern Italy’s historical and cultural trajectory: the optimism and disillusionment of the Giolitti period following national unification; the heady trial-by-fire of World War One and Futurist interventions; the revolutionary flowerings of Fascism and its hardening into an increasingly repressive regime; tensions between Fascist radicalism and reaction, autarchy and imperialism; the values of the Resistance and the realist aesthetic that formed their chief vehicle; the afterlife of Gramscian cultural theory; the cultural politics of the Cold War and the Economic Miracle; the lure of consumerism and Italy’s embattled anthropological “others”; the countercultural currents of the “long 1968” movements; the Years of Lead and dueling terrorisms; the Second Republic and Berlusconi’s Videocracy; the prospect of a multicultural Italy.
    [Show full text]
  • Saturday 22Nd to Sunday 30Th March 2014 at the Sheldonian Theatre and Christ Church OXFORD LITERARY FESTIVAL2014 LITERARY OXFORD
    Saturday 22nd to Sunday 30th March 2014 at the Sheldonian Theatre and Christ Church OXFORD OXFORD LITERARY 2014FESTIVAL Featuring Margaret Atwood Philip Pullman John Banville Orhan Pamuk Melvyn Bragg Michael Morpurgo Anita Shreve Ian McEwan Antonio Carluccio Lucy Worsley Kevin Crossley-Holland Jan Morris James Naughtie Ben Okri Jeremy Paxman Robert Harris Simon Jenkins Hanif Kureishi Madhur Jaffrey Eleanor Catton Jancis Robinson Alfred Brendel Alexander McCall Smith Mark Tully Jonathan Aitken Jewell Parker Rhodes Margaret Drabble Claudia Roden A C Grayling Lionel Barber Ben Macintyre Alan Titchmarsh Malorie Blackman Kirsty Wark Edward Stourton Andrew Graham-Dixon Jim Al-Khalili Joanne Harris Virginia McKenna Ahmed Kathrada Peter Snow Joan Bakewell Atul Kochhar Brian Sewell Gavin Hewitt Jesmyn Ward Subscribe to FT Weekend today Michael Caines Taiye Selasi From great interviews to arts and property; travel advice to where to invest. It’s all in FT Weekend. • L ife & Arts – a comprehensive blend of style, travel, arts, books and television • FT Weekend Magazine – exclusive interviews, outstanding photo-stories and fabulous food & drink • F T Money – Personal Finance Consumer Title of the Year providing readers with investment strategies and personal finance advice • House & Home – a definitive weekly guide to property, architecture, interiors and gardens • Ho w To Spend It – an award-winning monthly magazine on life’s luxuries Subscribe now, visit ft.com/weekendsub Box Office 0870 343 1001 Bodleian Libraries UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD www.oxfordliteraryfestival.org Festival Cultural Partner Front cover: Radcliffe Camera, Bodleian Library (photo: KT Bruce) This page: Statue of Sir Thomas Bodley, Old Schools Quad, Old Bodleian Library (photo: Oxford Picture Library) 2015 FESTIVAL DATES Saturday 21st March to Sunday 29th March WELCOME Director’s welcome We are delighted that FT Weekend is the new title HSBC have renewed their exceptional foundation sponsor of the Oxford Literary Festival.
    [Show full text]
  • Denis Mack Smith, Modern Italy
    Denis Mack Smith, Modern Italy: A Political History, University of Michigan Press, 1997 Although published some twenty years ago, it remains the standard for objective, scholarly history, as does his Italy and its Monarchy Mack Smith has written a biography of Mussolini which is equally thorough and reliable He has also written biographies on Cavour, Mazzini, and Garibaldi Christopher Duggan, Concise History of Italy More “textbook” but readable and accurate David Gilmour, The pursuit of Italy If you want a popular history and you don’t care about good methodology, this one is a good bet. Combines some travel and gossipy bits. Christopher Hibbert’s biography of Mussolini is good (less dense than Mank Smith’s) as is Ivone Kirkpatrick’s although now somewhat dated Iris Origo, War in the Val d’Orcia, more recent versions titled A Chill in the Air a personal view (diary) from a British historian-biographer who lived through the Second World War in Tuscany Charles F. Delzell, Mussolini’s Enemies Though “old” in publishing terms, still a standard work on the anti-fascist resistance after the Armistice Maria de Blasio Wilhelm, The Other Italy: The Italian Resistance in WWII More recent, with good reviews (I’ve not read it yet) Joshua Zimmerman, ed., Jews in Italy under Fascist and Nazi Rule, 1922-45 A collection of essays with recent revisionist historical views Renzo deFelice, The Jews in Fascist Italy Translated and published in English in 2001 a scholarly, in-depth work Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz or in more recent editions If this be a man (direct translation of original Italian title Se questo è un uomo) Levi was a Jew and a partisan sent to Auschwitz.
    [Show full text]
  • Fascism on the Rise
    University of Denver Undergraduate Research Journal An Ominous Horizon: Fascism on the Rise Matt Bergh1, Carol Helstosky2 1Student Contributor, University of Denver 2Advisor, Department of History, University of Denver 1 INTRODUCTION historian, R.J.B. Bosworth 1. Through his fabulous benevolence to individual citizens and communities Italian Fascism began in the face of economic stagna- throughout Italy, Mussolini was able to build a pow- tion and widespread frustration with liberal democracy erful base, fashioning a belief that he could right any following the conclusion of the Great War. It promised wrong 3. A significant part of Mussolini’s support came national renewal amidst humiliation and offered a pros- from the view of him as an “all-seeing, humane, and perous future against seemingly inevitable decline and protective father figure” 3. Acting as the Patron Saint of misery. In the drive for national revival and glory, Fas- Italy, Mussolini crafted an image that he was never too cism led to war. This essay will compare the tactics busy to “deal with the plight of an individual" 3. Popu- of Benito Mussolini and his marauding Fascists (Mus- lar legends of the leader’s charity advanced a belief that solini’s connection with Italians, Fascist economics, ex- Mussolini “was endowed with remarkable powers, and pansionist nationalism, and extreme political violence) yet was at the same time down to earth and unexcep- with the conditions in the country (economic misfor- tional – like an ordinary peasant” 3. Zelmira Marazio tune, nationalist anger, and government weakness) that summed up this view, remembering something that she set the stage for Fascism’s impregnable reign of ter- heard a passenger on a train say: ror.
    [Show full text]
  • Educating Italy (1796-1968 Ca.): Local, National and Global Perspectives
    Educating Italy (1796-1968 ca.): Local, national and global perspectives 4-5 December 2015 The Italian Cultural Institute, 39 Belgrave Square, London SW1X 8NX Conference Organisers: Dr Claudia Baldoli (Newcastle University), Dr Marcella P. Sutcliffe (University of Cambridge; UCL, Institute of Education) Maria Patricia Williams (UCL, Institute of Education) Conference Treasurer: Dr Marzia Maccaferri (Goldsmith, University of London) In Memoriam Christopher Duggan ASMI Chair (November 2014-November 2015) 1 In Memoriam Christopher Duggan 1957-2015 ASMI Chair November 2014-November 2015 At the start of the conference we will remember our colleague, Christopher Duggan, who passed away on 3rd November during his term of office as Chair of ASMI. Christopher was Professor of Modern Italian History at the University of Reading and Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. He was a brilliant historian, the author of many volumes of Italian history, including the recent, multi-prize winning Fascist Voices: An Intimate History of Mussolini's Italy. He was also a kind, thoughtful human being who gave his time generously to help others and support the studies of young scholars. He had been Chair of ASMI since 2014. 2 ASMI CONFERENCE 2015 Friday, 4 December 9.00 – 9.45 Coffee Basement Canteen 9.45-10.00 Welcome by Marco Delogu, Director of the Italian Cultural Institute and by Asmi Conference organisers Lecture Hall, (LH) ground floor At the start of the conference we will remember our colleague, Christopher Duggan, Asmi Chair 2014-2015, who passed away on 3 November. Session I 10.00 – 11.30 Room: Library - Chair: Michele Finelli Room: Lecture Hall - Chair: Claudia Baldoli 10.00 – Women, Children and Soldiers: Education and the First World Wa Fascist Education outside Italy 11.30 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Denis Mack Smith
    DENIS MACK SMITH Denis Mack Smith 3 March 1920 – 11 July 2017 elected Fellow of the British Academy 1976 by JOHN A. DAVIS Denis Mack Smith (1920–2017) was the best-known non-Italian historian of modern Italy of his generation. A fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge, since 1948, his first book, Cavour and Garibaldi: a Study in Political Conflict(1954), traced the origins of fascism to the short comings of Italian Unification and launched Mack Smith’s career.Italy: a Modern History (1959) quickly became the standard English-language text on mod- ern Italy, leading to his becoming a best-selling author and a major cultural figure. In 1961 he was elected to a Senior Research Fellowship at All Souls College, Oxford, the position he held until he retired, and in 1976 was elected to a Fellowship of the British Academy. In the same year his study of Mussolini’s foreign policy was published, fol- lowed in 1981 by a biography of the fascist leader. Author of a History of Sicily (with M. I. Finley and C. J. Duggan), an anthology of texts (The Making of Italy 1796– 1870) and numerous essays and articles, Mack Smith also wrote highly acclaimed biographies of Cavour and Giuseppe Mazzini and a history of the Italian monarchy. Modern Italy: a Political History (Yale 1997) rounded off his publishing career by bringing his earlier history up to date. Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the British Academy, XIX, 17–35 Posted 28 April 2020. © British Academy 2020. DENIS MACK SMITH Denis Mack Smith was the best-known non-Italian historian of modern Italy of his generation.
    [Show full text]
  • Professor Christopher Duggan
    ALL SOULS COLLEGE CHAPEL THREE TRIBUTES GIVEN BY STEPHEN GUNDLE, GEORGE NEWTH AND RICHARD BOSWORTH IN MEMORY OF CHRISTOPHER DUGGAN MA (Oxon), DPhil (Oxon) 4 November 1957 – 2 November 2015 Professor of Modern Italian History, University of Reading, 1987 – 2015 Fellow of All Souls College, 1985 – 1997, and 2015 Saturday, 12 December 2015 at 2.30 p.m. Stephen Gundle Christopher Duggan’s untimely death on 2 November 2015 was a terrible loss for his family and for his many friends, as well as for his colleagues and students. Christopher was widely-respected, he was full of ideas and was engaged on new research projects. As a writer and scholar, he was in his prime. Those, including myself, who had the task of communicating the sad news to the academic world received messages of sympathy which testify to the affection and the esteem with which he was regarded. Many young researchers fondly recalled his generosity in giving them his time and support, often corresponding with them long after meeting them at a conference or summer school and writing references for travel grants and scholarships. One remembered ‘this gentle scholar who, with his simple smile, immediately put me at ease, took time to talk with me about the Risorgimento and invited me to his home.’ Another wrote: ‘To me, he was both a brilliant sounding board for my work and a wonderful human being who went out of his way to encourage a young researcher who was trying to make his way’. His fellow Italianists admired his scholarship and his kindness.
    [Show full text]