From a war-torn and poverty-stricken country, regional and predominantly agrarian, to the success story of recent years, Italy has witnessed the most profound transformation--economic, social and demographic--in its entire history. Yet the other recurrent theme of the period has been the overwhelming need for political reform--and the repeated failure to achieve it. Professor Ginsborg's authoritative work--the first to combine social and political perspectives--is concerned with both the tremendous achievements of contemporary Italy and "the continuities of its history that have not been easily set aside."
| ||||||||||||
Browse our Bookshelf Favorites store for big savings on popular fiction, nonfiction, children's books, and more. |
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
Review
"...the best single work on postwar Italian history...readers will find this work invaluable."--John S. Hill, History: Reviews of New Books
"A work of major importance. It has a moral grandeur and a coherence of interpretation and approach that all in all likelihood will ensure it classic status... No future account of the Italian republic will be able to ignore it." -- Christopher Duggan, The Times Literary Supplement
"The achievement of Paul Ginsborg's massive volume is that the political drama is brilliantly interwoven with the whole cultural and economic history of the country... Page after page may be read with interest and delight by all true English lovers of Italy." -- Michael Foot, Guardian
"This is the best account of contemporary Italian history available to the English reader." -- Jonathan Morris, The Times
"A work of major importance. It has a moral grandeur and a coherence of interpretation and approach that all in all likelihood will ensure it classic status... No future account of the Italian republic will be able to ignore it." -- Christopher Duggan, The Times Literary Supplement
"The achievement of Paul Ginsborg's massive volume is that the political drama is brilliantly interwoven with the whole cultural and economic history of the country... Page after page may be read with interest and delight by all true English lovers of Italy." -- Michael Foot, Guardian
"This is the best account of contemporary Italian history available to the English reader." -- Jonathan Morris, The Times
About the Author
Paul Ginsborg is Professor of Contemporary European History at the University of Florence. His previous publications include Daniele Manin and the Venetian Revolution of 1848-1849.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
Share your thoughts with other customers
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A History Of Contemporary Italy: Society And Politics 1943-1988 by Paul Ginsborg (Professor of Contemporary European History, University of Florence) is an in-depth survey of Italy's social and political dynamics that saw it evolve from a war-torn and poverty-stricken, primarily agrarian country, into a prosperous, politically stable member of the European community. Here ably and accessibly recounted are the events, personalities, and reforms that were critical to eventually overcoming endemic and persistence corruptions, shortages, and obstacles necessary before the tremendous achievements of contemporary Italy and its eventual entrance into the European Union. A History Of Contemporary Italy: Society And Politics 1943-1988 is a scholarly, meticulous history and a welcome and recommended contribution to European International Studies and 20th Century Italian History reference collections and reading lists.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By Andre'
Format:Paperback
... for anyone interested in an extremely rich and contradictory social environment such as Italy after WWII. It is a complete, clear, and deeply intriguing work that I strongly recommend.
By S Wood
Format:Paperback
Paul Ginsborg's "A History of Contemporary Italy" begins with the Italians reaping the disastrous rewards of over two decades of Mussolini's rule. The Allies have invaded southern Italy, and on the removal of El Duce the Germans invade from the north. The author expertly portrays the chaotic situation, with an increasingly popular Resistance in the north fighting the Germans who are themselves trying to consolidate their control and stop the Allied forces from battling their way up the peninsula towards Germany itself.
Ginsborg is particularly good on the tensions between the Resistance (largely formed of Communists) and the Allies along with the Italian government formed after Mussolini was deposed. It is clear, that as in Greece, the Allies have no intention of leaving the Italians to sort out their own political future and clearly favour the right, particularly but not exclusively those who kept their hands relatively clean during the fascist era. This goes as far as - minimally - looking the other way as the Mafia re-established themselves in Sicily.
The book is broadly sympathetic to the left in Italy but without compromising on impartially telling the story of Italy's recovery under the Christian Democrats, or the limitations of the left themselves. This reader, for one, ended up wishing that the Communists had sent their leader Togliatti back to Moscow, along with the Stalinist style structures which weighed the party down and his policy of appeasement vis-à-vis the Christian Democrats which achieved nothing.
Ginsborg's attention is focussed primarily on social, political and economic developments as they evolved during the post-war recovery and beyond. A constant authorial eye is kept on changing programs and policies of all parties whether it's the Christian Democrats in central government, or other parties at the local level, as well as the economic and the social circumstances of the country, from the industrial and relatively advanced north to the impoverished rural south. Other topics covered include developments in the working class movements, the upheavals of 1968, agrarian reform, organised crime and industrial policy. There is also a substantial amount of social, political and economic data in a statistical appendix at the end of the book.
This is a substantial work that is very well written. Ginsborg, who himself has spent a good deal of time in Italy, conveys an enormous amount of information about the changing circumstances of post-war Italy. This is frequently accompanied with first-hand accounts from all manner of people, from the world of high politics and business to the southern rural migrant in the industrial north, that leave the reader with a vivid sense of developments. If there is one problem it is that though the book claims to tell the story of Italy up until 1988, most of the detail is with regard to the period up to 1980 with a short final chapter of twenty or so pages covering the main developments in the 1980's. Otherwise this is a book I would whole heartedly recommend to anyone who is interested in Italy in particular, and more generally in how a western European country developed during the economic "golden age" up until the 1970's and how afterwards things changed . . .
Ginsborg is particularly good on the tensions between the Resistance (largely formed of Communists) and the Allies along with the Italian government formed after Mussolini was deposed. It is clear, that as in Greece, the Allies have no intention of leaving the Italians to sort out their own political future and clearly favour the right, particularly but not exclusively those who kept their hands relatively clean during the fascist era. This goes as far as - minimally - looking the other way as the Mafia re-established themselves in Sicily.
The book is broadly sympathetic to the left in Italy but without compromising on impartially telling the story of Italy's recovery under the Christian Democrats, or the limitations of the left themselves. This reader, for one, ended up wishing that the Communists had sent their leader Togliatti back to Moscow, along with the Stalinist style structures which weighed the party down and his policy of appeasement vis-à-vis the Christian Democrats which achieved nothing.
Ginsborg's attention is focussed primarily on social, political and economic developments as they evolved during the post-war recovery and beyond. A constant authorial eye is kept on changing programs and policies of all parties whether it's the Christian Democrats in central government, or other parties at the local level, as well as the economic and the social circumstances of the country, from the industrial and relatively advanced north to the impoverished rural south. Other topics covered include developments in the working class movements, the upheavals of 1968, agrarian reform, organised crime and industrial policy. There is also a substantial amount of social, political and economic data in a statistical appendix at the end of the book.
This is a substantial work that is very well written. Ginsborg, who himself has spent a good deal of time in Italy, conveys an enormous amount of information about the changing circumstances of post-war Italy. This is frequently accompanied with first-hand accounts from all manner of people, from the world of high politics and business to the southern rural migrant in the industrial north, that leave the reader with a vivid sense of developments. If there is one problem it is that though the book claims to tell the story of Italy up until 1988, most of the detail is with regard to the period up to 1980 with a short final chapter of twenty or so pages covering the main developments in the 1980's. Otherwise this is a book I would whole heartedly recommend to anyone who is interested in Italy in particular, and more generally in how a western European country developed during the economic "golden age" up until the 1970's and how afterwards things changed . . .
Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Flawed but useful
Perhaps I underrate Paul Ginsborg. His books are well researched and informative but to my mind he can't keep his leftist sympathies from intruding into his works. Read more
Published on April 21, 2011 by John Barone
4.0 out of 5 stars
ginsborg contemporary italy
As good as the critics say-- well-written, based on very extensive Italian sources. But written from a far-Left perspective. Read more
Published on January 2, 2006 by Harold Kaplan
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 30
books:
See all 30 books this book cites
61
books
cite this book:
See all 61 books citing this book
- The Italian Communist Party by C. Grant Amyot on 5 pages
- Love And War in the Apennines by Eric Newby on 4 pages
- Prison Notebooks, Volume 3 (vol. 3) by Antonio Gramsci on 4 pages
- The United States (Countries) by Bob Italia in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Land and Family in Pisticci (London School of Economics Monographs on Social Anthropology) by J. Davis in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
See all 30 books this book cites
- Italian Film (National Film Traditions) by Marcia Landy on 5 pages
- Italian Film (National Film Traditions) by Marcia Landy on 5 pages
- Midnight in Sicily by Peter Robb on page 296, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Italian Cultural Studies: An Introduction by David Forgacs on page 127, page 143, and page 213
- The Cambridge Companion to Modern Italian Culture (Cambridge Companions to Culture) by Zygmunt G. Baranski in Front Matter, page 61, and page 130
See all 61 books citing this book
Books on Related Topics
(learn more)
|
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
|
|
