The Politics of Italian National Identity

This work offers a multidisciplinary perspective on how Italians have tried, over the last 150 years, to create their sense of nationhood. The contributors explore ways in which the country's history, politics, narrative, language, media and representational forms have contributed to the sense Italians have of being a nation since Unification in the latter part of the 19th century. Although historically, Italy is in some senses one of Europe's oldest political units, having been united by the Romans 3 centuries before the Christian era, it is at the same time one of the youngest "nation states". A rich and varied cultural and historical patrimony combined with very strong regional identities, and events of recent history, have produced one of the least clearly configured "nations". The contributors to this volume give a strong sense of the variety of ways in which national identities can be constructed; there is no "essence" of nationhood, and there are many uses, both conscious and unconscious, to which the sense of nationhood can and has been put.