The Pursuit of Italy, David Gilmour
The Pursuit of Italy, David Gilmour
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The Pursuit of Italy
A History of a Land, Its Regions, and Their Peoples

Author: David Gilmour

Narrator: Napoleon Ryan

Unabridged: 19 hr 26 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 09/12/2017


Synopsis

Did Garibaldi do Italy a disservice when he helped its disparate parts achieve unity? Was the goal of political unification a mistake? These questions are asked and answered in a number of ways in this engaging, original consideration of the many histories that contribute to the brilliance—and weakness—of Italy today.

David Gilmour's ex­ploration of Italian life over the centuries is filled with provocative anecdotes as well as personal observations, and is peopled with the great figures of the Italian past—from Cicero and Virgil to Dante and the Medicis, from Garibaldi and Cavour to the controversial politicians of the twentieth century. Gilmour's wise account of the Risorgimento, the pivotal epoch in modern Italian history, debunks the nationalistic myths that surround it, though he paints a sympathetic portrait of Giuseppe Verdi, a beloved hero of the era. Gilmour shows that the glory of Italy has always lain in its regions, with their distinc­tive art, civic cultures, identities, and cuisines. Italy's inhabitants identified themselves not as Italians but as Tuscans and Venetians, Sicilians and Lombards, Neapolitans and Genoese. Italy's strength and culture still come from its regions rather than from its misconceived, mishandled notion of a unified nation.


About David Gilmour

David Gilmour is one of Britain's most admired and accomplished historical writers and biographers. His books include The Last Leopard, The Long Recessional, The Ruling Caste, and, most recently, The Pursuit of Italy.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jonathan on September 26, 2012

I was truly sorry when I finished this book. David Gilmour has done all of us a great service in the writing of this readable, entertaining and yet serious history of Italy. After quoting Napoleon on the excessive length of the country, Gilmour properly points out that Italy is really - and always h......more

Goodreads review by Marisa on November 21, 2023

Adorei este livro. É excelente para quem quer compreender um pouco da História e da Cultura italianas. Não é um livro académico, mas é um livro escrito com muito espírito, dedicação e investigação. O autor sabe efectivamente do que está a falar e em momento algum tive vontade de parar de o ler... Qu......more

Goodreads review by K.M. on May 23, 2018

A hard-hitting biography of a beloved if often troubled country. It felt a little scattered early on, more of an “intermediate” book for people with some familiarity with Italy’s general history, but overall it presented an engaging and relatively thorough explanation of the region’s history.......more

Goodreads review by Emma Deplores Goodreads Censorship on September 12, 2023

Oh, this is all right, I guess. I’m always drawn to these big historical surveys because I want to learn a lot of history at once, but then so often they’re both rushed and dry, and this book isn’t really an exception. That said, Gilmour does have a thesis—that the unification of Italy in 1860 was d......more

Goodreads review by Rob on December 08, 2016

Mess of a book. Oddly organized, and the sentence structure often is so jumbled that it destroys any flow. And the author is fairly patronizing toward his subject.......more