Giuseppe Finaldi – författare

This book provides a narrative history of Italian colonialism from Italian unification in the 1860s to the first decade of the twentieth century; that is, it details Italy’s imperialism in the years of the Scramble for Africa. It deals with the factors that drove Italy to search for territory in Africa in the 1870s and 1880s and describes the reasoning behind the trajectories adopted and objectives pursued.

The events that brought Italy to open conflict with the Ethiopian Empire culminating in the Italian defeat at Adowa in March 1896 are central to the book. However its scope is much broader, as it considers the establishment of Italian power in Eritrea as well as Somalia before and after the defeat. By telling its history, it explains why Italy emerged irresolute and humiliated in this, its first thrust into Africa, yet nonetheless determined to pursue expansion in the future. The seeds for the conquest of Libya in 1911 and Ethiopia in 1935 had been sown.

This book provides a narrative history of Italian colonialism from Italian unification in the 1860s to the first decade of the twentieth century; that is, it details Italy’s imperialism in the years of the Scramble for Africa. It deals with the factors that drove Italy to search for territory in Africa in the 1870s and 1880s and describes the reasoning behind the trajectories adopted and objectives pursued.

The events that brought Italy to open conflict with the Ethiopian Empire culminating in the Italian defeat at Adowa in March 1896 are central to the book. However its scope is much broader, as it considers the establishment of Italian power in Eritrea as well as Somalia before and after the defeat. By telling its history, it explains why Italy emerged irresolute and humiliated in this, its first thrust into Africa, yet nonetheless determined to pursue expansion in the future. The seeds for the conquest of Libya in 1911 and Ethiopia in 1935 had been sown.

Fascism was one of the defining experiences of the European 20th Century. Within it many of the economic, political, social and cultural contradictions that had been brewing in the unprecedented transformation that European society underwent in the 19th and early 20th century came to a head. Mussolini, the man who most fashioned Italian Fascism, dramatically expressed the unease and the hopes of his age.

To what extent can we compare Mussolini''s Italy to Hitler''s Germany or Stalin''s Russia? What legacy has the experience of Fascism left behind in Italy and in Europe? These and many more important questions are explored in Finaldi''s introduction to one of the most important movements of the European 20th Century.

Fascism was one of the defining experiences of the European 20th Century. Within it many of the economic, political, social and cultural contradictions that had been brewing in the unprecedented transformation that European society underwent in the 19th and early 20th century came to a head. Mussolini, the man who most fashioned Italian Fascism, dramatically expressed the unease and the hopes of his age.

To what extent can we compare Mussolini''s Italy to Hitler''s Germany or Stalin''s Russia? What legacy has the experience of Fascism left behind in Italy and in Europe? These and many more important questions are explored in Finaldi''s introduction to one of the most important movements of the European 20th Century.