Description

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A brilliant, meticulously researched account of the birth of Italian democracy after Mussolini.

Between 1943, when Mussolini was deposed, and 1954, when Alcide De Gasperi, the Christian Democrat who first became premier in December 1945, died, Italy constructed a democratic miracle. Rather than collapse into civil war, the country agreed on a democratic constitution. They took steps toward modernization and created one of the most intellectually vital societies in the world. Italy transformed, in only a decade, from a divided country reeling from Fascism into a modern Western democracy.

Mark Gilbert charts the descent of Italy into Fascism, the scale of the wartime disaster, and the Italian resistance to Nazi occupation, all leading to the establishment of the Republic in 1946. Democracy in Italy brought improved social welfare, land reform, universal education, and fledgling rights for women in a country still grounded in Catholicism. Amid democratic progress, though, political factions persisted throughout the twentieth century, and their aftereffects are still visible today, highlighting the fragility inherent to democratic governments in Europe and beyond.

About the Author

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Mark Gilbert is C. Grove Haines Professor of History and International Studies at the Bologna Institute for Policy Research at Johns Hopkins University. The author of six books, he lives and works in Bologna, Italy.

Praise For…

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In this wise and penetrating book, Mark Gilbert demolishes the accepted view of postwar Italy as perpetually teetering on the edge of disaster and shows rather how it moved from the catastrophes of fascism and abject defeat in the Second World War to become a robust democracy which has lessons for the rest of us. A fascinating story wonderfully told.
— Margaret MacMillan, Emeritus Professor of International History, University of Oxford

Writing with great flare, Gilbert tells the epic tale of Italy’s emergence from its darkest days under Fascism to its postwar democratic success. There is no better way to understand where Italy has come from than to read Italy Reborn.

— David I. Kertzer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Pope and Mussolini