Italy

The Italian patriot’s visit to England was extraordinarily successful. But Queen Victoria deplored the scenes it provoked; and Karl Marx described them as “a miserable spectacle of imbecility”.

From 1858 to 1870, a privileged and gifted English observer, Odo Russell, watched the declining fortunes of the Papal government. Russell reported in his strong and lucid style, writes Noel Blakiston, “as though they formed a chapter of medieval history.”

W. Baring Pemberton introduces the most intrepid of the Italian Liberator's English volunteers.

One of the key figures of the Italian Renaissance died on August 1st, 1464.

Marcella Pellegrino Sutcliffe examines the political machinations behind a visit to England in 1864 of the Italian patriot and ‘liberator’, darling of the English establishment and radicals alike.

Patricia Wright describes the first Italian attempt to capture Ethiopia.

During the winter of 1935-6, writes Patricia Wright, Italian armies overran Ethiopia and annexed the Empire to the Italian Crown.

Prospects seemed encouraging for the Italian Empire in 1940, writes Patricia Wright, but an arduous defeat ensued.

David Mitchell introduces the Italian Romantic poet who played a brief part upon the European political stage.

The prototype of nationalist hero, yet a great internationalist, Garibaldi believed passionately in freedom but did not, writes Denis Mack Smith, disdain dictatorial methods.