Italy in the 1960s: A Legacy of Terrorism and Liberation

Abstract

In 1960s a spectacular economic advance that involved extraordinary population shifts from countryside to city and from South to North transformed Italian society. In A History of Contemporary Italy: Society and Politics 1943-1988, Paul Ginsborg describes 1958-1963 as the beginning of a social revolution. In immediate aftermath of these years, ceased to be a peasant country and became one of major industrial nations of West.' The Italian landscape and ways of life changed profoundly during 1960s. In 1952, half of all homes in Italy lacked running water and only a quarter of them had an indoor bathroom, but in following decade country strikingly augmented its development along lines of American consumerist model. Indoor plumbing became a normal part of life, as did automobiles, television sets, and most of standard items of consumption that even in very immediate past would have been unthinkable for most Italians. Irreparably and almost overnight, explosion of consumerism resulted in a revolution of rising expectations. Yet, for many of those Italians who lived through 1960s social and economic transformation seemed much less historically significant than problem of terrorism. An era is always seen differently by people who live through it and historian who studies it. For people living in midst of an era, there is no context. They cannot know essential piece of information on which historian, to his immeasurable advantage, bases his interpretation: how story comes out. The number of refrigerators purchased, of telephones in use, and similar statistics, are important indicators of Italy's transformation in 1960s. Nevertheless, in minds of Italians themselves, crucial story of decade was its violent close, beginning in 1968, which ushered in terrorist years of lead in 1970s. In a 1984 national poll, Italians were asked to name historical development of last fifty to which future historians of Italy would devote most attention. Of those polled, over 36 percent chose terrorism. Nothing else even came