Editorial preface : Giuseppe Mazzini, a prophet of modern times

Abstract

The figure of Giuseppe Mazzini is generally associated with the history of the Italian Risorgimento, or the process by which the Italian peninsula achieved Unification. Yet, few people know about Giuseppe Mazzini' s political writings, or appreciate that the political ideal they propagate might hold out an ideal that is still relevant to our time. Moreover, very few people know that this political figure had contacts with Malta and that his writings influenced the political development of the Maltese islands in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Mazzini, indeed, surely remains central to European thought generally. For a long time, Mazzini was a lonely Mediterranean voice advocating the concept of liberty, which is considered by Ferdinand Braudel as the hallmark that distinguishes Western civilisation from the rest of the world.