Further expanding an analysis previously made by the same author, this essay addresses the analysis of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in a global perspective and adds new evidence on the factors that influenced Mussolini's and Japanese Government's decision to promote the Nazi-Soviet Peace Feelers during the World War II. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Four critical readings analyse some recent books about Southern Italy in the late Middle Ages: especially, the fundamental structures of society and those of the public administration. The study of feudalism, as well as the study of the city and of the monarchy, provide a convincing framework of the mechanisms of public affairs at that period, in an area where the institutional experimentation has original characters and innovative strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]