The Unification of Italy - History Cafe #6
Details
Hello!
For the next session we are leaving the US (for now! the Mormons are waiting for us) and moving to Italy.
- We can examine the heroic figure of Garibaldi and his exploits in Sicily
- We can compare life under Imperialistic control (Austrian and French) to life in unified Italy. were the empires really that bad?
- we can debate to what extent the people of the peninsula really were "Italian"
- We can explore the role of the British Empire (they always stick their nose in things, don't they?)
- We can draw lines from the unification to the rise of fascism
- and more and more
Sources:
Sadly we don't have "The Rest Is History" this time. Please share more resources! It would also be nice if someone with access to a printer could print a few copies of the timeline of events (*ahem ahem looking at you Ellie)
The following are short Podcasts on the topic:
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This 120 pages book gives a thorough survey of the historiographic discussion over the unification, it's causes and effects:
The Empress on Netflix gives a (soapy) feel of what the Austro-Hungarian Empire was like at the time.
The Leopard is supposed to be a good novel about Sicily at that time (I haven't read it yet).
I also created a WhatsApp group so it will be easier to coordinate and discuss future topics:
https://chat.whatsapp.com/KsdpbuIAOsfG2hFYYnS9Aj
(joining requires approval, I'll only allow in people who've been in the events in the past, so that we don't get random joiners and spammers)
The Unification of Italy - History Cafe #6