
The experience of exiles was fundamental for shaping Italian national identity. Risorgimento in Exile investigates the contribution to Italian nationalism made by the numerous patriots who were forced to live in exile following failed revolutions in the Italian states. Examining the writings of such exiles, Maurizio Isabella challenges recent historiography regarding the lack of genuine liberal culture in the Risorgimento. He argues that these émigrés' involvement in debates with British, continental, and American intellectuals points to the emergence of Liberalism and Romanticism as international ideologies shared by a community of patriots that stretched from Europe to Latin America. Risorgimento in Exile represents the first effort to place Italian patriotism in a broad international framework, revealing the importance and originality of the Italian contribution to European Anglophilia and Philhellenism, and to transatlantic debates on federalism. In doing so, it demonstrates that the Risorgimento first developed as a variation upon such global trends.
This book investigates how the forced exile of Italian patriots following failed revolutions served as a primary catalyst for the development of Italian national identity and liberal ideology. Maurizio Isabella, a scholar of modern European history, utilizes a vast array of primary source writings from nineteenth-century émigrés to challenge the notion that Italian liberalism was isolated or underdeveloped. He argues that these exiles were active participants in a global intellectual network, effectively integrating Italian patriotism into the broader currents of European and transatlantic Liberalism and Romanticism. By analyzing these cross-border exchanges, the author demonstrates that the Risorgimento was not a localized phenomenon but a specific iteration of international political trends.
What You Will Find
Scope Limits
Historians and scholars of the Risorgimento frequently cite this work as a significant intervention that successfully moves Italian history away from a purely nationalist framework. Readers often note the academic rigor of the research, highlighting it as a necessary text for understanding the transnational nature of nineteenth-century political thought.
Page Count:
296
Publication Date:
2009-01-01
Publisher:
OUP Oxford
ISBN-10:
0191571415
ISBN-13:
9780191571411
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