Talks

The Unification of Italy 1871
by Professor David Laven

Date: Thursday 25 January 2018

New look at the Unification of Italy and  its inherent  problems
The Unification of Italy 1871

2011 marked the 150th anniversary of the establishment of a united Italy. Arriving in Rome for a conference to mark the event, I was told bluntly by my talkative taxi driver from the airport that it was absurd to celebrate a failed and corrupt state that had never won the loyalty of its citizens.  My talk will explore the tensions between the realities of how a united Italy came into being and the myths that are still cultivated to argue that it was the nature of unification that has led to many of the weaknesses of the Italian State to this day.

David Laven is Associate Professor of Modern History at the University of Nottingham.  His latest book due for publication in 2018 is Restoration and Risorgimento 1796 to 1870. Professor Laven is a prolific author of books and articles on Italy including in 2016  The British Idea of Italy in the Age of Turner; Venice 1848-1914: the Venetian sense of the past and the creation of the modern Italian nation; Elites in the Kingdom of Lombardy – Venetia; Napoleon’s Legacy: Problems of Government in Restoration Europe.

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