Modern Italy: A Very Short Introduction

This Very Short Introduction considers the history of Italy from the Risorgimento (the movement leading to Italian Unification in 1861) to the present. It also discusses Italy's political system and style of government; economic modernisation; emigration, internal migration and immigration; and the modern Italian culture and lifestyle.

Anna Cento Bull is Professor of Italian Studies at the University of Bath. She is the author of numerous books on Italian History and Politics, including From Peasant to Entrepreneur. The Survival of the Family Economy in Italy (with P. Corner, Berg, 1993), Social Identities and Political Cultures in Italy (Berghahn, 2000), The Lega Nord and the Northern Question in Italian Politics (with M. Gilbert, Palgrave MacMillan, 2001), and Ending Terrorism in Italy (with P. Cooke, Routledge, 2013). Her work on Italy has been wide-ranging, covering the economy and society, culture and identity, contemporary politics, terrorism, and collective memory. From 2005 to 2010 she was Editor of the interdisciplinary journal Modern Italy (Taylor and Francis) and in this role she both promoted and became familiar with new, original and ground-breaking scholarly work on all aspects of modern and contemporary Italy.