Fathers and sons in the mirror of Italian terrorism.

In 1980 left-wing terrorism presented itself in a light that had remained under the radar until then, that of generational conflict. At the height of the subversive attacks that coincided with the beginning of its end a number of families of the ruling class, of politicians, journalists, professionals, experienced the drama of one of their sons militating in an armed organization. The most clamorous cases include the son of Carlo Donat-Cattin, one of the most influential politicians of the Republic, and two of the assassins of Walter Tobagi, who were sons of well-known Milanese bourgeois intellectuals. Through these and other stories, this article which draws on material from the trial sources focuses on terrorism as a reckoning between fathers and sons, when patriarchal society suffered a decisive blow. A revealing view of the characteristics and limits of Italian modernization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]