131-118 Becoming Italian: Modern Italy 1860-2000

Usually 25 points of first year history, see Prerequisites, or first year European studies, Prerequisites.

This subject examines the making of modern Italy. It traces the social and political history of the modern Italian nation state, starting with the liberation of Sicily by Garibaldi's 1000 Red Shirts in 1860, and concluding with the 'Bribesville' and 'Clean hands' trials of the 1990s and the Northern League's efforts to unmake united Italy. It also probes the cultural history of the ongoing efforts to construct a widely credible pan-Italian identity in place of competing regional and sectional interests. In so doing, the subject focuses upon the themes of unification, fascism, the mafia, and the 'Problem of the South'. A selection of novels will be studied which highlight these themes.