John Foot introduces students to the key historical debates, themes and
events, helping them to understand the complex nature of Italian history over
the past 150 years. The second edition of this established text has been
revised and updated throughout, and now includes new boxes and additional
material on the Risorgimento and the Berlusconi era.
The first history of Italian football to be written in English, `Calcio' is a
mix of serious analysis and comic storytelling, with vivid descriptions of
games, goals, dives, missed penalties, riots and scandals in the richest and
toughest league in the world.
'An enjoyable, highly readable history that manages to bring murky, often fiendishly complex events into the light' Sunday Times Italy emerged from the Second World War in ruins. Divided, invaded and economically broken, it was a nation that some people claimed had ceased to exist. And yet, as rural society disappeared almost overnight, by the 1960s, it could boast the fastest-growing economy in the world. In The Archipelago, historian John Foot chronicles Italy's tumultuous history from the post-war period to the present day. From the silent assimilation of fascists into society after 1945 to the artistic peak of neorealist cinema, he examines both the corrupt and celebrated sides of the country. While often portrayed as a failed state on the margins of Europe, Italy has instead been at the centre of innovation and change - a political laboratory. This new history tells the fascinating story of a country always marked by scandal but with the constant ability to re-invent itself. Comprising original research and lively insights, The Archipelago chronicles the crises and modernisations of more than seventy years of post-war Italy, from its fields, factories, squares and housing estates to Rome's political intrigue.