Monuments, Public Space, and the Memory of Empire in Modern Italy

Abstract

How are wars defined and described, and for whose benefit? What constitutes a war worth remembering? Among European historians, a great deal of innovative scholarship has been devoted to rethinking the causes and legacies of World War I and World War II. The first and only wars to secure these august titles, they are still seen by most Europeans as the defining and constitutive experiences of the modern era. The very intensity of disagreement over this period has made it fertile ground for public forms of civic, though not always democratic, debate and regeneration. Yet not all conflicts are created equal. Nor are all wars remembered with the same gravity or revisionist vigor. This is true, regardless of their length, intensity and the number of their victims. In this article, I address one type of war that many Europeans have found difficult to openly debate. Focusing on twentieth-century Italy, I address the history and memory of empire, with a special emphasis on Italy’s colonial wars in Africa. In particular, I consider how and why Italian political leaders and ordinary citizens have included—but also excluded—colonial conquest as a central chapter of their modern national military, political and civic history. To do so, I examine a number of official, public markers to Italy’s colonial wars, including monuments, squares, street names, and military and civilian