A Brief History of Italy

By: Jeremy Black

Narrated by: Roger Davis

Despite the Roman Empire's famous 500-year reign over Europe, parts of Africa and the Middle East, Italy does not have the same long national history as states such as France or England. Divided for much of its history, Italy's regions have been, at various times, parts of bigger, often antagonistic empires, notably those of Spain and Austria. In addition, its challenging and varied terrain made consolidation of political control all the more difficult. This concise history covers, in very readable fashion, the formative events in Italy's past from the rise of Rome, through a unified country in thrall to fascism in the first half of the 20th century right up to today.

The birthplace of the Renaissance and the place where the Baroque was born, Italy has always been a hotbed of culture. Within modern Italy country there is fierce regional pride in the cultures and identities that mark out Tuscany, Rome, Sicily and Venice to name just a few of Italy's many famous regions. Jeremy Black draws on the diaries, memoirs and letters of historic travellers to Italy to gain insight into the passions of its people, first chronologically then regionally.

In telling Italy's story, Black examines what it is that has given Italians such cultural clout - from food and drink, music and fashion, to art and architecture - and explores the causes and effects of political events, and the divisions that still exist today."

©2018 Jeremy Black (P)2018 Hachette Audio UK

Critic reviews

"Jeremy Black skilfully sketches social, cultural and political trends." (Christina Hardyment, Times audiobook of the week)

Good overview

Good overview of the checkered past of that beautiful country. Recommend complementing it with Duggan's Concise History of Italy.

Useful but a bit shallow and anecdotal

Although the book provides some geographical and historical contextualization that is useful to understand Italy, it focuses too much on the anecdotal. In addition, the author sometimes pays more attention to how the British have perceived Italy rather than providing an analysis of Italy itself. There is not much explanation of how life in Italt has changed over time and there is too much emphasis on dropping names of "great men", nobles, kings, leaders, and other "important figures. Not much reference to historical processes, scarce explanation of economic issues, not much about Italian culture.
The description of the ancient period is best, and analysis of contemporary Italy lacks depth, ressembling a collection of contemporary news from the media.