Race and Risorgimento: An unexplored chapter of Italian history

Abstract

ABSTRACT In Italian history, race has been traditionally examined in the context of colonialism, Fascism, and the Shoah. In contrast, the role played by ideas of race in the Risorgimento – when the idea of an Italian nation was formulated – has not been sufficiently investigated. This article argues that ideas of race played a pivotal role in the construction of Italian identity and that nationalism sparked the diffusion of new theories concerning the ethnic and racial past of Italy. In this period, older understandings of race such as ‘stock’ and ‘lineage’, and newer concepts borrowed from the natural history of man and linguistics intersected with each other. This process, by further ‘biologizing’ and racializing national traits, made the Italian nation a ‘concrete’ and ‘tangible’ concept. By dissecting these different meanings of race we can unearth the racial subtext that permeates the public discourse on national identity, and gain a broader understanding of Italian and European nationalism in current years.