The tragic consequences of Italian unification,including fascism: Two recent views

Abstract

This review article discusses two recent books in English dealing with Italian history, both recent and past. David Gilmour’s The Pursuit of Italy maintains that the unification of Italy was a sin against history and geography, and considers virtually all the elements of dysfunction – military, political, administrative – a tragic consequence of that ill-conceived and poorly executed unification. Attaching particular importance to a statement by Gobetti, even fascism and the 20 years of its dictatorship are seen among those tragic consequences. However, Gilmour also proposes that the majority of Italians favored the regime or it could not have lasted 20 years. Michael Ebner’s Ordinary Violence in Mussolini’s Italy makes it abundantly clear how and through which violent means the regime was able to last that long, without needing to invoke the supposed complicity of the majority of the Italian people.