Italy, A Short History

Italy: A Short History succeeds and replaces the long-established and highly successful Short History of Italy, edited by Professors Hearder and D. P. Waley. It presents a clear and concise account of the principal developments in Italian history from the Ice Age to the present day, intended both for student of Italian history and culture and the general reader with an interest in Italian affairs. Professor Hearder's account centres on the main political developments, placed in their appropriate economic and social context, and shows how these were related to the great moments of artistic and cultural endeavour. Professor Hearder traces the prehistoric and classical history of the peninsula, the growth and decline of the Roman Empire and the expansion in power and authority of the medieval papacy. He shows how the remarkable cultural achievements of the Renaissance emerged from the horror of the Plague, and how the spread of humanism and the development of printing made Italy the cultural heart of Europe. There then followed, however, a long period of domination from without, culminating in the brief episode of Napoleonic rule. This was only ended with the emergence of the great nineteenth-century movement for national renewal, inspired by the contrasting figures of Mazzini, Cavour and Garibaldi. The newly-democratic Italian kingdom survived the First World War, only to be taken over by the Fascist regime of Benito Mussolini. Professor Hearder examines the travails and contradictions of the Fascist period, and concludes his account with an optimistic assessment of the future prospects of the Republic, capable of contributing much to the rejuvenated Europe of 1992 and beyond.