History Of The Italian People

by Giuliano Procacci

Book Overview

From the early years, when its cities and towns were self-governing, to the national rise to power of fascism this century, Italy has undergone many upheavals: political, social, economic and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140215212
• ISBN13: 9780140215212
• Release Date: November 1986
• Publisher: Penguin UK
• Length: 478 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.

Customer Reviews

An excellent introduction

Gracefully written and heartfelt. Procacci throws a wide net (Italian history since the year 1000), but the format of his book helps the reader keep things straight: each chapter covering a certain period consists of subsections on five different city-states, so that a reader wishing to read only about, say, Florence, can easily follow just that strand. Procacci focuses on political history -- he characterizes his approach as "ethical-political," -- with the occasional foray into social, economic and cultural history when necessary. This book was originally was written for a French readership; I read it in Italian. I hope the English edition features the 1997 the afterword, which is quite moving: Procacci reflects soberly and sincerely on his formation and his practice as a historian, and yet he is writing about events that he lived through, and he keenly conveys his own hopes and disappointments.