Italy in Europe : a brief historical introduction

Abstract

The commemoration of the creation of Italy as a nation state succeeded in attracting public interest worldwide to the extent that one of the most widely read history books in 2011 was related to Italian history. This is David Gilmour's The Pursuit of Italy: A History of a Land its Regions and their Peoples, wherein the author discussed the vibrancy of Italy's regional identities and what he termed as the deficiencies of the Italian state, the roots of which, according to him are to be found in the limitations of the political process that occurred 150 years ago. In The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean, another outstanding book, David Abulafia shows Italy's determining role in the formation of one of the world's great centres of civilisation, that is the Mediterranean.