A History of Contemporary Italy

A huge, useful tome of post-war Italian history. Because it's basically a history book, it can be a bit dry and hard to stay focused-on - but kudos to Ginsborg for trying to cram all that info into my tiny brain. I wish I could take this book as a lecture series/course by him. Anyway, just for my own memory, here are my takeaways: well, first there was the war and the occupation by the evil Nazis. That sucked. Partisans were cool. Americans saved everyone (and planted their seeds of control). Then the major Italian parties formed - the DC (Christian Democrats), PCI (Communists) and PSI (Socialists) (Ginsborg doesn't mention the crazy right-wing guys like Lega Nord and Alleanza Nazionale) - but America kinda hated the Communists during the Cold War, so they were doomed to be opposition forever. At least until the late 70s/Berlinguer; though, even in government, they didn't work out. In fact, every government since the war didn't work out so well. Reform never came. The bureaucracy was horrible. The mafia thrived. People protested, ‘68 idealism working itself up into a frenzy of 1970s terrorism (Aldo Moro; the Bologna train station bombing; radicals and anarchists). And then the 1980s happened, when everyone wore big horrible glasses and rolled around in money. (I imagine “Working Girl”, only with Beppe Severgnini and his big glasses making appearances.) I'm sure I missed a lot. But nonetheless, Ginsborg did an amazing job, and now I have this trusty tome as a reference. Seriously, it's huge. He has a sequel (which I think he should have titled, “Berlusconi!”, but instead is called “Italy and Its Discontents”). Indeed, the story is discontenting to the max. Machiavellian backstabbing and corruption is fun (and funny) at the remove of 500 years, in the romance of Renaissance princely states. But 20th century corruption and decay is just sad. Oh, Italy. What to do with you!