Praise for previous editions:"Clark has produced an excellent example of what Italians like to describe, usually with admiration, as empirismo inglese" West European Politics "Martin Clark's Modern Italy has a big gap to fill, and plugs it admirably… It can be read with pleasure and profit by specialist and general reader alike." P.J. Morgan, English Historical Review "Clark's well-organized chapters are the best short account so far available in English." P.A.Ginsborg, Times Literary Supplement

• 1: Introduction; One: 1871-87; 2: Italietta - a backward society?; 3: The Liberal State; 4: The subversives; Two: 1887-1914; 5: The first crisis of the Liberal State, 1887-1900; 6: The first ‘economic miracle': industrialization and the economy, 1896-1914; 7: Politics in the age of Giolitti, 1900-14; 8: An Italian people?; Three: 1914-43; 9: Italy and the Great War; 10: The strange death of Liberal Italy, 1919-25; 11: The Fascist State: the new authoritarianism; 12: The Fascist regime: the quest for consensus; 13: The economy and society under the Fascists; 14: Fascist diplomacy and Fascist war; Four: 1943-2006; 15: Resistance and renewal: Italy from 1943 to 1948; 16: The triumph of ‘Low Politics'; 17: The economy and society under the Republic; 18: The Great Cultural Revolution: Italy in the 1970s; 19: The economy and society, 1980-2006; 20: The collapse of the ‘First Republic'?