Italy : a short history / Harry Hearder.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hearder, Harry.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Italy--History.

Italy.

History.

Physical Description:

xii unnumbered pages, 285 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1990.

Summary:

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 for both the student of Italian history and culture and the general reader, whether tourist, business-person or traveller, 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 after 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 ended only 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.

Contents:

List of illustrations x

1 Italy in the classical world 1

1 Prehistoric Italy 1

2 The Greeks, the Etruscans and the arrival of the Romans 6

3 The Roman Republic, c. 509 BC-AD 313 12

4 The Roman Empire, AD 313-c. 400 26

2 The early Middle Ages 38

1 Barbarian invasions and Byzantine Italy, c. 400-c. 600 38

2 Lombard Italy and the foundation of the Papal States, c. 600-800 43

3 The Empire and the Papacy, 800-1216 49

4 Venice and her maritime empire, c. 600-c. 1300 59

3 The high Middle Ages 66

1 Sicily under the Normans and Frederick II, 1130-1250 66

2 The city-states and the republics 72

3 The decline of the Papacy and the Avignon period, 1216-1378 83

4 Cultural achievements in the age of Giotto, Dante and Petrarch 89

4 The Renaissance 96

1 The Black Death and the economic recovery of the fifteenth century 96

2 Humanism and the impact of printing 103

3 Florence under the Medici and the Republic 112

4 The High Renaissance: artists and their patrons in Rome, Milan, Venice and Naples 119

5 The political and cultural eclipse of Italy 126

1 The foreign invasions and wars of the sixteenth century 126

2 The Counter-Reformation and the Spanish period 132

3 The Austrian period and the return to Europe 141

4 The military state of Savoy and its dynasty 147

6 The Risorgimento, 1790-1861 153

1 The Napoleonic and Restoration eras, 1790-1821 153

2 Italian nationalism and the role of Mazzini, 1821-49 164

3 Cavour and the europeanization of the Italian Question, 1852-9 178

4 Garibaldi and the achievement of unity, 1859-61 187

7 From Unification to Fascism, 1861-1922 198

1 The first years of unity and the era of Depretis and Crispi, 1861-96 198

2 Giolitti's building of democracy, 1892-1914 208

3 The First World War: neutrality, intervention, and victory, 1914-19 212

4 Socialist failure and the advent of Fascism, 1890-1922 218

8 The Fascist disaster, 1922-45 225

1 The establishment of the dictatorship, 1922-9 225

2 Isolation and triumph in foreign policy, 1925-36 230

3 The alliance with Germany: neutrality and entry into the Second World War, 1936-40 235

4 Defeat and the collapse of Fascism, 1940-5 239

9 Italy since the Second World War, 1945-89 244

1 The resistance and the establishment of the Republic, 1944-7 244

2 The economic recovery and the predominance of Christian Democracy, 1947-58 250

3 Communism in Italy and its relation in Western and Eastern Europe since 1956 256

4 Towards the twenty-first century: Italy since 1976 262

A brief guide to further reading 268.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

0521330734

0521337194

OCLC:

20930847