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    The Pursuit of Italy: A History of a Land, Its Regions, and Their Peoples
    The Pursuit of Italy: A History of a Land, Its Regions, and Their Peoples
    The Pursuit of Italy: A History of a Land, Its Regions, and Their Peoples
    Audiobook19 hours

    The Pursuit of Italy: A History of a Land, Its Regions, and Their Peoples

    Written by David Gilmour

    Narrated by Napoleon Ryan

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    About this audiobook

    Did Garibaldi do Italy a disservice when he helped its disparate parts achieve unity? Was the goal of political unification a mistake? These questions are asked and answered in a number of ways in this engaging, original consideration of the many histories that contribute to the brilliance-and weakness-of Italy today.

    David Gilmour's ex­ploration of Italian life over the centuries is filled with provocative anecdotes as well as personal observations, and is peopled with the great figures of the Italian past-from Cicero and Virgil to Dante and the Medicis, from Garibaldi and Cavour to the controversial politicians of the twentieth century. Gilmour's wise account of the Risorgimento, the pivotal epoch in modern Italian history, debunks the nationalistic myths that surround it, though he paints a sympathetic portrait of Giuseppe Verdi, a beloved hero of the era. Gilmour shows that the glory of Italy has always lain in its regions, with their distinc­tive art, civic cultures, identities, and cuisines. Italy's inhabitants identified themselves not as Italians but as Tuscans and Venetians, Sicilians and Lombards, Neapolitans and Genoese. Italy's strength and culture still come from its regions rather than from its misconceived, mishandled notion of a unified nation.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateSep 12, 2017
    ISBN9781541479975
    Author

    David Gilmour

    Sir David Gilmour is one of Britain’s most admired and accomplished historical writers and biographers. His previous books include The Last Leopard, The Long Recessional, The Ruling Caste, and The Pursuit of Italy.

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    Reviews for The Pursuit of Italy

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      While the author does paint the Italian nation with a somewhat jaundiced eye, I feel that his point of view is very fair. Having lived and worked in Italy on and off during a period of about 13 years, I had not really understood why this beautiful country does not work as a nation until I had read this book. For me the revelatory chapters were those that told the real story of the Risorgimento; how the unification of Italy was not motivated by some national dream, like other 19th century nationalist movements, but was just an opportunistic land grab by the the thuggish Savoy monarchy. This is a book that everyone that loves - and maybe thinks that they know - Italy, should read.
    • 5/5
      Excellent telling of the unusual path to statehood taken by (some of) the Italians. Why Italy is the way it is.
    • 2/5
      Didn't seem to argue itself as persuasively as it could/should have. The general argument is good though. Some of it is certainly nice.I get the feeling there's probably a better summary (that's also a little longer) of Italian history. One of the problems I found is that Gilmour spends too much time on things (like film analysis) that don't deserve it. Should've spent at least twenty more pages on Medieval Italy. Another big flaw is that, since this is clearly intended as an introduction of sorts, there isn't a nice immediate time-line of dynasties and empires near the beginning. I have this as an ebook (kindle), however, and so I was inclined to quickly pass through the appendix.
    • 3/5
      An opinionated history of Italy. The setup (why Italy is more a geographic than political construct) is engaging, but the summary history of Italy which follows does not fully execute on the promise of the setup.