“To write a history of the Risorgimento, and in particular its significance as a political-cultural movement central to contemporary Italy, is an ambitious undertaking. In this book Alberto Mario Banti succeeds splendidly in delivering the goods.” Roberto Coaloa, Il Sole 24 Ore
The Kingdom of Italy was founded in 1861: after centuries of fragmentation the Peninsula was finally united in a single aggregate and its territories were completed in the decade that followed. It was a revolutionary event and experienced as such by the people of the time, both inside and outside of Italy. This book examines the long process of the formation of the national movement from the first patriotic surge at the end of the eighteenth century to the insurrections, the revolutionary attempts of the first half of the nineteenth century, and the crucial year of the Kingdom’s establishment.