Politics of culture in liberal Italy: from unification to fascism

Abstract

Politics of Culture in Liberal Italy discusses the controversial process of modernization and nation-building between Unification and Fascism. Analysing cultural policy on the level, the book includes chapters on theatre and opera, the medieval revival, the rediscovery of the Etruscan past and on the Italians’ changing relationship to the nation state and the monarchy. Challenging the stereotypical idea of a nation obsessed with its home-grown culture, Italy’s political, social and cultural transformation during the nineteenth century was closely linked to the European experience of modernity, reflected in philosophical and political debates and in Italy’s cosmopolitan approach to music and the arts. The book takes the former Papal Legations and their capital Bologna as a case study - a large region in the north of the peninsula, which played a crucial role during the political and diplomatic process of Unification. Conflicts between ancient elites and the rising middle class, between the Moderate and the Democratic traditions of the Risorgimento, and between Catholicism and anti-clericalism demonstrate how throughout the second half of the nineteenth century Italians negotiated national, regional and identities. After a short experience of municipal socialism during World War One, Bologna was the first city in which the Fascist squads replaced a democratic administration. Comparing Bologna to examples of other Italian cities and the nation as a whole, the book offers a new explanation of Italy’s road to Fascism and a fresh approach to studying the relationship between culture, politics and societal change during the European Fin-de-siecle.