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In recent years, biographical interviews with former pupils have become important sources for boarding school history. This raises the question as to whether these retrospective sources can be combined with contemporary written material and how to go about that. This paper argues for a triangulation of written with oral sources and the related methods of historical biography research and reconstructive social research. The combination of data and methods turns boarding school history into an interdisciplinary project that poses new challenges for research. At the same time, it also offers a way to a deeper understanding of boarding school history and its long-term effects.

In the first four or five centuries of its manufacturing in Europe, paper was neither cheap nor available in unlimited quantities. Old rags, the primary material from which the paper was exclusively made, were a strategic commodity and trade with them was strictly regulated. Owing to their perpetual scarcity, as well as to the overall laboriousness of the papermaking process, a skilled master printer of the Incunabula period was hardly able to purchase a ream or two of high-quality paper for his monthly earnings. Consequently, the earliest printers had to rely on the support of ‘venture capitalists’ in order to secure steady supplies of paper. But the limitations of its manufacturing were not resolved by the end of the Incunabula period. Alas, the shortage and high cost of paper accompanied the development of print in Italy and elsewhere practically up until the advent of its industrial production from wooden pulp in the nineteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we describe an experiment in using history to work on problem-solving and the relationship between arithmetic and algebra. The students involved attended the first year of the Italian upper secondary school (grade 9). The original sources we used are problems from Italian treatises on arithmetic and algebra that appeared in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. At the beginning, we present these treatises, which belong to a widespread mathematical tradition. We then describe the classroom experiment: we administered 14 problems from ancient treatises accompanied by the request to solve them and write impressions and comments. Data were collected through written protocols and interviews. The analysis of the results focused on the strategies implemented in solving the problems, with particular reference to the use of arithmetic and algebra, and on the perception of the cultural aspect introduced by these problems in the students' approach to mathematics. The findings show the difficulties of some students on topics, such as fractions and direct proportionality, which should have been acquired in earlier school years. Combining the use of history with aspects of research in mathematics education allowed us to outline some teaching implications linked to the use of history.

Aims This article explores the care British nurses provided to victims of typhus during the Second World War. Background Typhus is associated with poverty and overcrowding. During wars in the pre-antibiotic era, civilians were particularly susceptible to epidemics, which military governments feared would spread to their troops. Design This discussion paper draws on archival data from three typhus epidemics in the Second World War to examine the expert work of British nurses in caring for victims during these potential public health disasters. Data Sources The published sources for the paper include material from nursing and medical journals published between 1940-1947. Archival sources come from the National Archives in Kew, the Wellcome Library and the Army Medical Services Museum, between 1943-1945. Of particular interest is the correspondence with Dame Katharine Jones from nurses on active service overseas. Implications for Nursing Whilst epidemics of typhus are now rare, nurses in the present day may be required to care for the public in environments of extreme poverty and overcrowding, where life-threatening infectious diseases are prevalent. This article has demonstrated that it is possible for expert and compassionate nursing to alleviate suffering and prevent death, even when medical technologies are unavailable. Conclusion Expert and compassionate care, adequate nutrition and hydration and attention to hygiene needs are crucial when there are limited pharmacological treatments and medical technologies available to treat infectious diseases. The appreciation of this could have implications for nurses working in current global conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on three Southern European countries, Italy, Portugal and Spain, to explore examples of projects that provide signposts for a critical popular education that contributes to an ongoing democratic process--one whereby citizens are developed as social actors and members of a collectivity rather than simply passive producers/consumers. This approach would serve as an alternative to the traditional "top-down" and current hegemonic economy-oriented discourses. In so doing, the paper seeks to redress an imbalance in the English language adult education and learning literature that often overlooks alternative discourses to the mainstream on and from this part of the world.

Between 2007 and 2017, El Sistema -- Venezuela's national system of youth orchestras -- enjoyed a seemingly unexplainable meteoric rise, followed by an equally spectacular sunset. Although it would be easy to dismiss this Sistema decade as being no more than a peculiar aberration of music education history, I assert that El Sistema more accurately represents a poignant return -- or ritornello -- to one of the recurring rationales for music education, namely social activism. By situating this brief but notable decade of Sistema enthusiasm amidst a wider historical context of Venetian Ospedali, British Brass Bands, and American Settlement Music Houses, I highlight and critique the use of social activism as a rationale for music education. Ultimately, I argue that the societal importance claimed by El Sistema and derivative music education initiatives is not tenable, especially in consideration of the unremarkable legacies of similar socio-musical endeavours. I also argue that a stronger socio-musical lens would be advantageous for the field of music education to adopt. Thus, in addition to establishing a centuries-long pattern of socio-musical ritornellos, the purpose of this paper is to use a rise-and-fall dialectic to further explore the complexity of music education and its capacity for directly addressing society's inequities.

The article presents the summary of a conference that focused on newspapers in Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries. It was held May 12-13, 2011 in Münster, Germany. Topics under discussion included the national history associations and their media publications, the regional online newspaper, called "Rosenland. Zeitschrift für lippische Geschichte," and the regional and historical newspapers being published in Southern Tyrol (Trentino-Alto Adige), Italy.

The article reviews the report "Dwarf giants, giant dwarfs. Reflections about the Italian 'industrial demography' at the beginning of the new millennium" by Andrea Colli, published in the same issue of the journal.

After an introduction to the Italian linguistic situation, highlighting the remarkable number of language varieties present in Italy today, the paper goes on to review briefly the history of micronationalism in Italy, and to propose a classification of language planning based on the distinction between macro- and micronationalism. There follows a brief outline of the language planning strategies carried out in two areas of Northern Italy, one where a recognised minority language is spoken (Friuli) and the other where a language variety is spoken which is not recognised by the Italian State (Western Lombardy). The paper closes with an analysis of the role that the local micronationalist groups have had on language policy and how this seems to be affected by the level of local autonomy, and discusses how the political orientation of micronationalist groups appears to shape their commitment to the promotion of local languages in these two Italian cases. (Contains 15 notes and 3 tables.)

In this paper we analyse the role that "food security" has played in the evolution of the food discourse in Italy, a country with a strong and internationally recognized food culture. We identify three phases of this evolution: in the first phase, from the end of the Second World War to the end of the 1980s, the "modernization" frame, with its emphasis on productivity and the industrial organization of production, dominates in a context populated mainly by agricultural actors. A second phase, characterised by the "turn to quality", encourages the development of a "Made in Italy food consensus". In this phase, food security mainly concerns food safety and conservation of national food identity. The third phase is characterised by a response to the pressures generated by the 2006-2008 food crisis and the subsequent recession. In this phase food security becomes a key element of a new consensus frame, which links together pieces of discourse that often existed in separate fields of activity and policy. The analysis is carried out within a conceptual framework that focuses attention on the co-evolution between discourse and discursive coalitions in a progressive overlapping between "public sphere" and "market sphere". (Contains 1 table.)

"Over-representation" of Jews in the world of mathematics is a common observation, but rarely discussed in print. In response to a new book on the subject by Ioan James, this paper recounts the author's own interaction with Jewish over-representation at universities in the U.S., and also gives information about Hungary and Italy. The contrast with the drastic under-representation of Jews in U.S. mathematics in the 1920's and 30's is discussed and an explanation is given of how under-representation became over-representation and how this over-representation presently is fading away.

The topic of the article is the place of history in the development of cultural relations between Czechoslovakia and Italy between 1948 and 1989. Cultural relations are an inseparable part of bilateral relations between countries, and this is true in the case of the complicated relations between Czechoslovakia and Italy in the period from the rise of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia in 1948 to its demise in 1989. History, in its various forms, also had an indispensable place in these relations. This was due to the general fact that the regime in Czechoslovakia used historical themes and adapted their content as part of its promotional action not only for its own population but also in international relations. It was also due to the specific features of the historical development of the two countries and a number of common features. This paper deals with the wide range of traces that the question of history has left in Czechoslovak-Italian relations. First, it concerns the question of historical scientific research carried out by Slovak and Czech scholars (historians or archivists) in Italy based on a cultural interstate agreement, an agreement between academies of sciences or outside the framework of agreements, and the formal and informal relations between professional historians of both countries. Another aspect examined is the place of historical themes in cultural, popularization and propaganda activities in the form of films, lectures, exhibitions, museums, celebrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relation between anarchism, art and the state in the twentieth- century Italian context. In particular, I investigate the painting-installation I funerali dell'anarchico Pinelli by Enrico Baj (1972) to explore the relationship between the display of the artwork and active involvement in the anarchist movement. First, I introduce the theoretical and historical background of the examination, linked to the scholarly debate on the influences between anarchism, Futurism, and fascism. Secondly, I describe the genesis, the socio-political implications and the trajectory of Baj's artwork. Ultimately, I draw some conclusions about the relationship between art and nationalism, and the question of memory in national canons. The main argument of this paper is that the path to the institutional recognition of I funerali dell'anarchico Pinelli was long and difficult not because of the inner clashes between anarchist ideology and institutional settings, but rather because of the rejection of anarchist art in the contemporary Italian national canon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To the authors' knowledge, this paper is the first to explore the dietary regime provided in a total institution. Specifically, the aim of this study is to highlight gender differences in the dietary regimes of mental health patients. Using archival and documentary evidence, the study uses an unobtrusive research approach to explore the diets of mental health patients living in the Girifalco asylum, in southern Italy, during the second half of the 19th century. The evidence analyzed examines whether the dietary regimes that were rebuilt are perfectly in line with the principles of moral treatment. Concerning the study, limitations should be stated; although archival evidence suggests that the institutional meals provided in Girifalco asylum were nutritionally adequate (by gender), this is impossible to verify. In conclusion, the dietary regime provided at the Girifalco asylum was balanced both from a qualitative and quantitative point of view for healthy living in a total institution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The WAS—Waterscape Archaeology in Sicily—project is dedicated to underwater cultural heritage mapping, knowledge and awareness of the cultural heritage, dissemination, and analysis of the submerged environment concerning the coast. The prototype investigation site presented here is Isola delle Femmine (PA, Italy). This paper highlights the archaeological discovery with a description of the main finds, across a multidisciplinary approach, carried out with low-cost technology, increasing sustainable diving, and underlining the relationship between submerged and open-air historical evidence. Our studies address the realization of new underwater archaeological itineraries connected to local history. This text provides a historical-archaeological introduction to understanding the context of the site and, with some geological notes, illustrates the phases of the research with a presentation of the main artifacts, with a focus on the methodology and the techniques of the surveys and the usefulness of underwater photogrammetry and 3D modeling with a particular focus on the tourism application in the diving centers. Our work has allowed for the creation of two new underwater archaeological itineraries of Sicily. The innovative aspects of our project are linked to a new holistic approach in the context of the scientific synergy between multiple disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The paper investigates the closure mechanisms and strategies of exclusion concerning the establishment and subsequent functioning of the Collegio dei Rasonati, the professional body of accountants that was established in Venice in 1581 and operated until the end of the 18th century. Design/methodology/approach: The research design offers a critical longitudinal explanation of the emergence of the Collegio dei Rasonati as a professional body in the context of Venetian society by relying on the social closure theory elaborated by Collins (1975); Parkin (1979) and Murphy (1988). Findingse: The Collegio dei Rasonati was established to overcome the prerogatives of a social class in accessing the accounting profession. However, the pre-existing professional elites enacted a set of social closure strategies able to transform this professional body into a stronghold of their privileges. Research limitations/implications: As virtually all of the evidence concerning the admission examinations has been lost over time, the investigation is restricted to the study of the few examples that have survived. The main implication of the study concerns the understanding of some dynamics leading to neutralize attempts to replace class privileges with a meritocratic system. Originality/value: The research investigates the structure of the rules of social closure revealing the possibility of an antagonistic relationship between different co-existing forms of exclusion within the same structure. Moreover, it highlights that a form of exclusion can be made of different hierarchical levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Italian student movement's move from libertarian utopia to political terrorism is analyzed in terms of the social and economic crisis in Italy. This is characterized by the collapse of representative student institutions, the rise of dogmatism and sectarianism, and the glorification of violence as a means of social change. (JMF)

Copyright of Journal of Zoological Systematics & Evolutionary Research is the property of Hindawi Limited and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper sets out to explore the birth and development of the first women's associations in Italy, leading to the establishment of the first women's repositories and archives. Strikingly enough, they developed rather late (in the 1980s), during the second wave of feminism, probably because it took a long time for women to acquire self-awareness in a patriarchal, male-dominated society. This paper will also investigate the lack of connection between women's archives in Italy and their American counterparts which, on the contrary, due to their long-dating tradition, provided a valuable source of inspiration and a model for other European countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Nasleđe is the property of University of Kragujevac, Faculty of Philology & Arts and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In the public debate played out in the media, the financial crisis in Italy is often depicted through a culturalist frame; the country's difficulties are traced deterministically to an ethos, supposedly widespread among Italians, of amoral familism and a limited sense of civic engagement. This paper illustrates three issues that exemplify the country's financial problems, and which are often seen through this type of culturalist lens: i) a lack of discipline in managing public finances; ii) a lack of interest in co-operation caused by the excessive importance given to family ties; iii) a lack of agency from the people involved, symbolised by a reluctance to leave home and to adopt an intense pace of work. Considering the relevant literature and various statistics, we show that a culturalist approach helps to spread a stereotyped and misleading view of these three issues. Instead, we suggest that a more accurate reading of the situation, and more stimulating when it comes to public debate, can be obtained by observing the way individuals adapt to the limitations and opportunities of the context in which they operate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In literary sources death in Roman battle was often portrayed as glorious, yet how the bodies of the war dead were treated was far removed from this ideal. This paper focuses on this dichotomy, and the seeming contradictions in attitudes and behaviours. In ancient Rome, the war dead were little remembered, respected and mourned for. After battle the bodies of dead soldiers were hastily gathered and disposed of en masse. There were no war memorials that listed the names of the dead, no military war cemeteries that acted as places of pilgrimage, little battlefield tourism and no annual commemorative rituals. This stands in stark contrast to the tombstones set up by soldiers in peacetime, to the arches and columns that celebrated victories in the city of Rome, to the triumphal processions that filled its streets and the tales of military bravery that formed literary set pieces. On the one hand to die for Rome was presented as glorious, on the other hand the reality was bloody, brutal and seemingly soon forgotten. This paper investigates how the bodies of soldiers were treated post-battle, uniting the limited archaeological evidence with a range of literary texts. Why was the basic treatment of military corpses deemed acceptable, and how were those corpses manipulated in real, and literary, games of power and politics? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Radovi Zavod za povijesne znanosti HAZU u Zaru is the property of Zavod za Povijesne Znanosti HAZU and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Origini is the property of Gangemi Editore S.P.A. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The aim of this paper is to explore the role played by cost accounting in Italy's Industrial Mobilization system and in the largest firm manufacturing weaponry, Ansaldo of Genoa, during WWI. While in other countries such as the UK and the USA, efficiency in buying and managing war material was an important part of military strategy, in Italy, various factors impeded it. This paper focuses on contracting procedures adopted by the Ministry of War and Ministry of Munitions and looks at the cost accounting practices in Ansaldo to see how costs were determined and how prices were set. We found a paradox. On the one hand, despite knowledge of costing, the government did not impose cost controls on the producers of war material, nor on their profit rates. On the other hand, examining Ansaldo's cost sheets we discover they underestimated their production costs leading the firm to losses despite its favorable political position. This paper contributes to the theoretical debate about the relationships between accounting and war in the Italian context where lobbying, collusion, bribery and private interests dominated the administrative behavior of public and private actors instead of efficiency, accountability and honesty. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper investigates the main patterns of industrial specialisation in Italian provinces over half a century following the Unification of the country. To this end, we propose a multivariate graphical technique named dynamic specialisation biplot. In 1871, specialisation vocations towards the different manufacturing sectors were limited in size and no clear geographical clustering emerged. A regional specialisation divide resulted instead clearly in 1911. In 1871 as in 1911, the foodstuffs, textile and engineering sectors represented the three pillars delimiting the arena of the specialisation race. Within that arena, the effect of public policies on the temporal evolution of provincial specialisation is considered. The adoption of free trade in the early 1860s affected noticeably the industrial specialisation of a few Neapolitan provinces. The subsequent protectionist measures altered the specialisation trajectories of selected northern provinces, largely attracted by the textile sector during the 1880s, and by the rapidly growing engineering sector in the pre-First World War decade. Within and between regional homogeneity and smooth specialisation, trajectories are instead representative of most of the remaining provinces. Among them, southern provinces exhibit specialisation paths revealing that little more than a composition effect occurred among manufacturing sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The history of psychological trauma is neglected in the psychiatric literature in comparison with other mental diseases. Most mental disorders have a long documented history (e.g. depressive disorders and anxiety disorders), and boast scores of medical sources since ancient times. Although scarce, there is evidence of psychological trauma in historical, literal, mythical and medical manuscripts. These fragments provide us with hints of psychological trauma throughout human history, shedding a bit of light on the concept of psychological trauma. The author presents evidence of psychological trauma from antiquity to the Renaissance era. The paper has four parts. Each part corresponds to a different historical period. The four periods in human history are: antiquity, ancient Greece and Rome, the dark and medieval ages and the European Renaissance era until the 16th century. The author inquires as to why psychological trauma was neglected and remained obscure for centuries, and whether there was a common denominator of psychological trauma that is beyond culture, race, gender and time. The paper aimed to address these inquires. In conclusion, these aspects in the history of psychological trauma are of scholastic and practical importance, and may also contribute to the broader understanding of modern psychotraumatology. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a short history of Italian marine biology, starting from the mid 16th century. During the Renaissance, a profound curiosity for marine sciences animated the scientific thought and several Italian naturalists started to collect rare and unusual marine items, sometimes acting with little critical sense towards medieval unbelievable legends. The 17th and 18th centuries saw a development of botany and zoology as modern disciplines and Italian scholars started to study the Mediterranean fauna and flora. They became active mainly at the Universities of Trieste, Venice, Palermo, Naples, Rome and Genoa and in other scientific institutions that arose under the different political regimes in which Italy was divided at that time. The Kingdom of Italy, born in 1861 with enormous financial difficulties, was interested in reaching an international scientific limelight: hence, some oceanographic expeditions were organized all around the world with a significant collection of data and specimens. The scientific interest for sea life increased and became at international level at the end of the 19th century, with the foundations of the first shore-based Zoological Stations in Trieste and Naples. At the beginning of the 20th century, intensive studies of inshore benthic communities by dredging and, afterwards by diving, started concurrently with those on structure and dynamics of plankton and fish populations which yielded a significant knowledge of the marine life from the Mediterranean continental platform. After the Second World War, the fundamental studies conducted at the Zoological Station of Naples on genetics, embryology and developmental biology using marine organisms as study models, were spread to different universities, going to constitute an Italian school of experimental embryology of international value. Today, the modern Italian marine biology is increasingly multi-disciplinary, requiring the participation of biochemists, geneticists and mathematicians and it opens up to new frontiers often linked to the global changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tony Gentile’s photograph of Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino is one of the most reprinted Italian photographs of the twentieth century. Deriving a special status from its connection to the lost dead bodies of the judges, Gentile’s photograph is a cultural icon, which makes demands on viewers in the present like an uncanny revenant from 1992. This paper considers examples of ways the photograph has been visually, symbolically and materially manipulated by social agents in the years since the judges’ assassinations, to reflect on the polysemous power of the photograph. Considering visual adaptations of the photograph from anti-mafia demonstrations to monuments, and commemorative stamps; from football stadiums to political cartoons, this paper will show how Gentile’s photograph has become the quintessential visual symbol representing the struggles over the memory and meaning of the war against the mafia in contemporary Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The recent cultural history of the Italian Risorgimento has claimed that it was a ‘mass movement’ which affected the lives of a far greater number of soon-to-be Italians than traditional revisionist and Marxist narratives have assumed. This new history has, however, left certain questions unanswered. There has still been little attempt to explore popular receptions of national discourses, and what Risorgimento politics meant to the mass of ‘ordinary' people who lived through these seismic changes. This paper seeks to explore the ways in which one particular Risorgimento audience – the rural and urban illiterate of the province of Palermo – responded to, and attempted to make sense of, national-patriotic discourses which were articulated through ephemeral street literature and the oratory of Giuseppe Garibaldi in Palermo. This research makes use of the textual transcriptions of popular oral balladry, collected and published by Sicilian folk-scholars at the end of the nineteenth century, to investigate how the people of Palermo received and internalized discourses on Italian nationhood. An analysis of the language of these song-texts reveals that much of the imagery and symbolism of Italian nationhood, elaborated through various discursive practices, was rebuffed and the traditional, familiar idiom of popular culture was employed in the representation of the events of 1860. This paper will propose that oral culture possessed its own internal and autonomous set of images and narrative features, and that people’s receptions of official-patriotic discourses were shaped by the familiar descriptive norms of popular balladry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the impact of the First World War (WWI) and its aftermath on the political activism of the Mzabi community in the Algerian desert. Following the French annexation of the Mzab Valley in 1882 and the military draft imposed on Mzabis in 1912 and again in 1918, Mzabis, who are Amazighen (sing. Amazigh, also known as Berbers) and Ibadis (members of minority sect in Islam), felt more and more threatened by French policies towards the Mzab and its inhabitants. This paper shows how the events of WWI and the hope in a French defeat and an Ottoman victory provided Mzabis with the opportunity to link to trans-border anti-colonial movements, especially in Tripolitania and Tunisia, and to promote their case for Mzab’s independence from French Algeria. Those movements, tied to Istanbul, had emerged earlier during the Italian invasion of Libya in 1911 and were reinvigorated during WWI and the Ottoman efforts of mass mobilization. Mzabis were linked to resistance groups in Tripolitania and thus were able to easily integrate themselves during WWI into cross-border anti-colonial movements. They perceived themselves as part of a pro-Ottoman North African movement opposed to European colonial projects and not part of an Algeria they considered to be ‘French.’ In particular, given their strong connections to Tripolitanian activists who were also Ibadis and connected to Istanbul, they believed that they were better positioned to negotiate their independence from France than the Maliki (followers of the Maliki religious school of jurisprudence) majority of Algeria. Their activism during and shortly after WWI and struggle for their own independence as ‘Mzabis,’ distinguishing themselves from the rest of Maliki Algerians, highlight three important themes. The first is the need to create one uninterrupted narrative linking the Italian invasion of Tripolitania in 1911 to WWI in terms of shaping cross-border alliances and political strategies in the Maghrib towards the Allies. The second is the significance and continuous relevance of the Ottoman context for North African and Saharan communities in the definition of their political allegiances during WWI. Third are the alternative political imaginations Mzabi activism during WWI presents us. Rather than the usual perception of WWI as being the catalyst for nationalist stirrings in the region, the case of the Mzabis provides a counter-narrative to nationalist historiographies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Looks at the Canadian contribution to the collapse of the sanctions front against Italy in 1935. Conditioning of Canadian policy; Redistribution of responsibility; Contribution of Canadian leaders to the formation of general imperial policy; Examination of the Ethiopian crisis; Opposing a `forward policy' against Italy; Failure in supporting a common stand against Fascism.

The paper addresses the impact of the Rhine Crisis of 1840 on Italian countries and explains the role they played in the European State System when the Continent seemed to be on the eve of a general war. As the paper attempts to prove, the crisis seriously alarmed the ruling classes as well as the general public and revealed the internal problems of the Italian countries as well as their deep distrust towards the egotistic and self-serving policies of the Great Powers. The paper therefore introduces the history of Italy during late 1840 within the wider context of European diplomatic history and serves as a probe into the history of the European State System during the Pre-March period in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Mediterranea - Ricerche Storiche is the property of Mediterranea-Ricerche Storiche and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The main scope of this paper is the presentation of two little-known sets of archival records, kept at the Central State Archive of Rome and crucial for knowledge of the history of Sicilian collections in the early post-Unification period. In particular, they detail two donations of coins and antiquarian objects to the Museum of Palermo by the collector Delfino Trucchi (1868) and by the Director Antonino Salinas (1873). The Ministry of Public Education, the main state authority for museum management and supervision, was appreciative of these actions. Records, transcribed in an online Appendix, form the core of this paper and offer fresh data to help contextualize these episodes in terms of the history of Sicilian archaeology. Last but not least, observations on the political significance of these donations will be provided, as well as remarks on the role of Salinas as both skilful numismatist and ‘clever’ donor of approximately 6,600 finds. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses new studies of foreign soldiers in the Italian armed groups of the (Anti-)Risorgimento against the background of recent scholarship on ‘transnational soldiers’, which acknowledges the complexities of foreigners' initial motives for enlistment and of the transnational processes inside the single armies. The article suggests that from the mundane structures of military life to the perceptions of the rank-and-file, many aspects of the soldiering experience in the multinational armed groups on all sides of the Risorgimento actually advanced rather than obviated national boundaries. This paper further demonstrates that the military cultures of the nationalists and the anti-unity forces were much more porous and mutually constitutive than is often recognised. The histories of the ‘transnational soldiers’ in the armed groups of the Risorgimento and Anti-Risorgimento are crucial for a possibly new, comparative history of the armed groups of the (Anti-)Risorigmento. This paper explores approaches of the culturally revived ‘new military history’ and suggests that it provides much still unrealised potential for Risorgimento historiography. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the general reasons for the crisis in Italy's contemporary public library institution. This crisis is complicated by the historical origins of the public library in Italy and, more broadly, by the difficult relationship between the Italian culture and today's world. Design/methodology/approach – A conceptual discussion on the role of public library in Italy. Findings – The paper finds that the continuing delay in the acquisition of literacy, the tendency for points of view to become divided and to go to extremes and the development of a form of politics in the country suspended between centralised government and the claims of the local self-governments are all factors that have influenced the establishment of the public library in Italy. Originality/value – Understanding the conditions of the controversial origins of the public library in Italy can be of help when deciding which model to use in the future. A suitable model for this institution must not neglect but, on the contrary, must enhance the role of the library as a social institution of the history of a specific community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with one of the pillars of contemporary business history – the use of cross-national comparisons. Besides the longitudinal, the comparative perspective is a crucial dimension of business and economic history research. During the last decades several attempts have been made to illustrate the process of development and structuring of national markets and corporations both currently and in a historical perspective, through the use of a comparative method. This paper aims to point out the possibilities and problems with this approach. It especially highlights the role of institutional factors and changes as important determinants for national development and as obstacles for good comparative exercises. It also discusses the role of functional and coherent definitions in comparative research and the problems connected with data collection and analysis. The main research question is how cross-national comparisons can help us develop business history research further. A comparison between family firms in Italy and Sweden shows that the development of family business in these two countries exhibited extensive similarities during the early decades of the twentieth century. However after World War II the two countries became more diversified in terms of their industrial structure. While Swedish family firms became an important part of national big business, Italian family businesses developed into smaller and more flexible organisations. Thus, today in Sweden several family-owned and controlled firms are among the largest in the country, particularly in capital- and technology-intensive industries. Italian family firms, even if present among the largest in the country, are largely in industries other than high tech, and show a degree of organisational sophistication inferior to their Swedish counterparts. This paper discusses the driving forces behind this development, showing how the explicit use of the comparative, longitudinal approach can highlight the patterns of convergence and divergence across national business models. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Migrant struggles in contemporary Italy offer a critical standpoint for understanding the uses of race in times of crisis. This paper analyses racialization first as a structural feature of neoliberalism in Italian society, and then as a crisis management strategy in the transition to late neoliberalism. Against this background, migrant struggles - for freedom of movement and the right to life, for equality at work, for the right to housing - will be interpreted as examples of counter-racialization. Through the development of counter-discourses on the crisis and austerity, in terms of causes, responsibilities and alternatives policies, and through practices of solidarity those struggles deconstruct the dominant frame of "ethnic competition for scarce resources" and try to reunite "those below" against "those above" across national and other racializing lines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper discusses the discrepancy between the literary sources that describe how in Rome graffiti criticized men of power and voiced political dissent, and the virtual lack of such surviving graffiti in smaller Roman towns, primarily Pompeii. Who wrote political graffiti and for what public? And how can we explain the ubiquity of political graffiti in Rome (according to the literary sources) and the absence of such graffiti from Pompeii? It is argued that this lack of graffiti does not reflect harmonious political relations in Pompeii but rather our difficulty in understanding ancient wordplay as well as the loss of nearly all texts written in charcoal and chalk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the genealogy and creation of the asylum in Racconigi, in Italy. The paper explores the management of Dr. Toselli between 1873 and 1879. This mental hospital hosted psychiatric patients from the Province of Cuneo, coming from families, hospitals and other asylums in Turin, Genoa, Reggio Emilia. The research also outlines the history of public health policies and control strategies of abnormalities in an Italian province. At the same time, it looks at the political and cultural context of the time and analyses the complexity of power relations between public authorities, and their ideology on the issue of the insanity plea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper intends to reconstruct the climate of Turin where he lived and worked Giuseppe Levi, the particular figures which animated the subalpine universities in the fascist period, the fruitful interaction between Jewish and anti-fascist world. Particular attention will be devoted to the different reactions of the Jewish community during the confidence to fascism in 1931 oath. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]