BOOK: Carolina ARMENTEROS & Andrea UNGARI (eds.), A Companion to Italian Constitutional History (1804-1938). The House of Savoy and the Making of the Nation-State [Brill's Companions to European History; 30] (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2023), ISBN 978-90-04-53730-9

 

(image source: Brill)

Abstract:

This is the first account in English of the making of Italian nationhood from the perspective of constitutional history. It is also the first to consider the role that the House of Savoy played in this process. Bringing together influential experts in the field, the collection covers the evolution of the Italian constitution from Russian diplomacy’s little-known planning of the Risorgimento to the monarchy’s demise after its clashes with fascism. Combining systematic coverage with original research, the volume includes such varied themes as the king’s role in the Italian wars of independence, the Italian peninsula’s forgotten charters of 1848, and the story of the ephemeral building that housed the first Italian parliament. Contributors are: Carolina Armenteros, Andrea Ungari, Paolo Colombo, Frans Willem Lantink, Christian Satto, Giulio Stolfi, Valentina Villa, Tommaso Zerbi, and Romano Ferrari Zumbini.

Table of contents:

Notes on Contributors
List of Figures

Introduction
 Carolina Armenteros and Andrea Ungari
1 The Savoy Monarchy and the Parliamentary System: From the Kingdom of Sardinia to the Kingdom of Italy
 Andrea Ungari
2 “Changes Appropriate to the Times, and Circumstances”: The Crown and the Modernization of the State in the Kingdom of Sardinia (1814–53)
 Giulio Stolfi
3 The Pact and Its Overseer: Crown and Modern Constitutionalism in the Kingdom of Sardinia (1844–52)
 Romano Ferrari Zumbini
4 Constitutionalism or “Neoabsolutism”? Monarchies in Italy, 1848–1859/1866
 Frans Willem Lantink
5 The Making of Italy (through the Ephemeral): The First Italian Parliament between State-Building, “Risorgimental Neo-Medievalism,” and Glorification of the House of Savoy
 Tommaso Zerbi
6 More than Kings: The Role of the Italian Monarchs in the State-Building Process and Foreign Affairs
 Valentina Villa
7 The Role of the Crown in the Building of an Italian Identity (1878–1922)
 Paolo Colombo
8 1925: The Jubilee of King Victor Emmanuel III  Monarchy and Fascism in a Year of Transition and Afterward
 Christian Satto

Conclusions
 Francesco Bonini

Bibliography
Index

On the editors:

Carolina Armenteros, PhD. (2005), University of Cambridge, is Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences and Director of the Center for European Studies at the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra. Her extensive publications on political thought include her monograph The French Idea of History: Joseph de Maistre and his Heirs, 1794-1854 (Cornell, 2011). Andrea Ungari, Ph.D. (2002), is Professor of Contemporary History at the Università Guglielmo Marconi and Professor of the Theory and History of Political Parties and Political Movements at the Università Luiss Guido Carli. He has published more than a dozen books on Italian political and institutional history, including La guerra del Re. Monarchia, sistema politico e Forze armate nella Grande Guerra (Luini, 2018).

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