Abstract
This essay analyzes the complex relationship between Garibaldi and the Italian youth during the period of the Unification of Italy. The myth of Garibaldi was born with the new generation who embraced the democratic nationalist creed propagated by Mazzini, and was later brought to the battlefields by Garibaldi. During the wars for the Italian Unification and all of the Garibaldi's enterprises, Italian youth fought for an idea of freedom and independence in a spirit of comradeship and affection. Their experiences were recounted in memoirs written over a long period of time, in which the authors returned with the memory to the main events of the Risorgimento, thus providing the character of that historical period to the later generations. Their writings, however, had an unforeseen outcome, because, in the end, they served as a means for the dominant conservative ruling class to co-opt the myth of Garibaldi in the name of a political strategy meant to attract to the Monarchy the popular support associated with Garibaldi and the democratic movement.
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