John Foot

'Calcio' tells the story of Italian football from its origins in the 1890s to the present day. It takes us through a history of great players and teams, of style, passion and success, but also of violence, cynicism, catenaccio tactics and corruption.We meet the personalities that have shaped this history - from the Italian heroes to the foreigners that failed, the model professionals to the mavericks. 'Calcio 'evokes the triumphs (the 1982 World Cup victory) and the tragedies (Meroni, the 'Italian George Best', killed by his number one fan), set against a backdrop of paranoia and intrigue, in a country where the referee is seen as corrupt until proven otherwise.Calcio is no longer a game. It is sometimes difficult to define it as a sport. It is certainly big business and a fanatical civic religion. There is no moral code here. Winners are always right, losers always wrong. This history of Italian football - the first written in English - is a mix of serious analysis and comic storytelling, with vivid descriptions of games, goals, dives, missed penalties, riots and scandals in the richest and toughest league in the world.

A History of Italian Football

Calcio

A major history of the rise and fall of Italian fascism: a dark tale of violence, ideals and a country at war

The Rise and Fall of Italian Fascism

Blood and Power

When the wind of the 1960s blew through the world of psychiatry In 1961, when Franco Basaglia arrived outside the grim walls of the Gorizia asylum, on the Italian border with Yugoslavia, it was a place of horror, a Bedlam for the mentally sick and excluded, redolent of Basaglia’s own wartime experience inside a fascist gaol. Patients were frequently restrained for long periods, and therapy was largely a matter of electric and insulin shocks. The corridors stank, and for many of the interned the doors were locked for life. This was a concentration camp, not a hospital. Basaglia, the new Director, was expected to practise all the skills of oppression in which he had been schooled, but he would have none of this. The place had to be closed down by opening it up from the inside, bringing freedom and democracy to the patients, the nurses and the psychiatrists working in that “total institution.” Inspired by the writings of authors such as Primo Levi, R.D. Laing, Erving Goffman, Michel Foucault and Frantz Fanon, and the practices of experimental therapeutic communities in the UK, Basaglia’s seminal work as a psychiatrist and campaigner in Gorizia, Parma and Trieste fed into and substantially contributed to the national and international movement of 1968. In 1978 a law was passed (the “Basaglia law”) which sanctioned the closure of the entire Italian asylum system. The first comprehensive study of this revolutionary approach to mental health care, The Man Who Closed the Asylums is a gripping account of one of the most influential movements in twentieth-century psychiatry, which helped to transform the way we see mental illness. Basaglia’s work saved countless people from a miserable existence, and his legacy persists, as an object lesson in the struggle against the brutality and ignorance that the establishment peddles to the public as common sense.

Franco Basaglia and the Revolution in Mental Health Care

The Man Who Closed the Asylums

'An enjoyable, highly readable history that manages to bring murky, often fiendishly complex events into the light' Sunday Times Italy emerged from the Second World War in ruins. Divided, invaded and economically broken, it was a nation that some claimed had ceased to exist. By the 1960s, Italy could boast the fastest-growing economy in the world, as rural society disappeared almost overnight. In The Archipelago, acclaimed historian John Foot chronicles Italy's tumultuous history from the post-war period to the present. From the silent assimilation of fascists into society after 1945 to the artistic peak of neorealist cinema, he examines both the corrupt and celebrated sides of the country. While often portrayed as a failed state on the margins of Europe, Italy has instead been at the centre of innovation and change – a political laboratory. This new history tells the fascinating story of a country always marked by scandal but with the constant ability to re-invent itself. Comprising original research and lively insights, The Archipelago chronicles the crises and modernisations of over seventy years of post-war Italy, from its fields, factories, squares and housing estates to the political intrigue of Rome.

Italy Since 1945

The Archipelago

“Una bellissima ricerca storiografica” Internazionale Nel 1961 Franco Basaglia assume la direzione del manicomio di Gorizia; nel 1978 la legge 180 decreta la chiusura definitiva dei manicomi in Italia. La battaglia per la riforma radicale dell’assistenza psichiatrica fu innescata dal rifiuto di pochi medici e amministratori locali di avallare gli orrori di una realtà spesso paragonata ai lager nazisti. Dal lavoro concreto per l’umanizzazione di un istituto meramente repressivo nasce una riflessione culturale e politica di vasta portata sui meccanismi dell’esclusione sociale e sull’idea stessa della malattia mentale. Conclusa l’esperienza pionieristica di Gorizia, gli psichiatri radicali incontreranno a Trieste, Parma, Perugia, Reggio Emilia, Arezzo e in tante altre città italiane una nuova generazione di amministratori capaci di rischiare per le proprie convinzioni. La società pare ormai disposta a riaccogliere gli esclusi; l’abolizione del manicomio diventa davvero possibile. John Foot ricostruisce questa complessa vicenda con appassionato rigore storico, documentando non solo i successi e i fallimenti ma anche le feroci controversie (esterne e interne) che inevitabilmente l’accompagnarono. E che ancora non si sono spente.

Franco Basaglia e la psichiatria radicale in Italia, 1961-1978

La “Repubblica dei Matti”

Rivoltelle, bombe a mano, manganelli e olio di ricino: questo era l'armamentario delle 'squadracce' fasciste che cento anni fa imperversavano per l'Italia, lasciando una scia di morte e di devastazione. Una violenza che sconvolse la penisola e ne paralizzò ogni reazione. La conquista del potere da parte del fascismo, cento anni fa, si caratterizzò per l'uso di una violenza smodata e senza limiti. Pestaggi, uccisioni, linciaggi, devastazioni furono sistematici nel 'biennio nero' 1921-1922, ma continuarono con la stessa brutalità anche dopo la marcia su Roma fino ad annientare l'opposizione politica nel paese. Questa brutalità così efferata provocò uno shock fortissimo: i socialisti e i comunisti, che si erano sentiti fino a quel momento sul punto di scatenare la rivoluzione, non seppero reagire e difendersi. Ma l'effetto dirompente della violenza sul corpo della nazione venne sottovalutato anche dallo Stato liberale e dalle élites che, in un primo momento, avevano pensato di utilizzare i fascisti per liquidare il 'pericolo rosso'.Se l'ascesa del fascismo fu efferata, altrettanto lo fu la sua caduta, con i venti mesi di guerra civile che portarono l'Italia sull'orlo del baratro.Per molto tempo gli storici si sono interrogati sul consenso al regime fascista e hanno dedicato poca attenzione all'uso della violenza da parte dei fascisti e al ruolo anche simbolico che questo ha avuto. John Foot, nel solco della migliore divulgazione inglese, ne ricostruisce la storia a partire da singole storie individuali, spesso dimenticate.

Ascesa e caduta del fascismo

Gli anni neri

Calcio is John Foot's love letter to Italian football and its absorbing history. 'Calcio' tells the story of Italian football from its origins in the 1890s to the present day. It takes us through a history of great players and teams, of style, passion and success, but also of violence, cynicism, catenaccio tactics and corruption. We meet the personalities that have shaped this history - from the Italian heroes to the foreigners that failed, the model professionals to the mavericks. 'Calcio' evokes the triumphs (the 1982 World Cup victory) and the tragedies (Meroni, the 'Italian George Best', killed by his number one fan), set against a backdrop of paranoia and intrigue, in a country where the referee is seen as corrupt until proven otherwise. Calcio is no longer a game. It is sometimes difficult to define it as a sport. It is certainly big business and a fanatical civic religion. There is no moral code here. Winners are always right, losers always wrong. This history of Italian football - the first written in English - is a mix of serious analysis and comic storytelling, with vivid descriptions of games, goals, dives, missed penalties, riots and scandals in the richest and toughest league in the world.

The story of Italian cycling is the story of Italy in the twentieth century.

Pedalare! Pedalare! : a history of Italian cycling

A History of Italian Cycling

Pedalare! Pedalare!

The 2006 World Cup final between Italy and France was a down-and-dirty game, marred by French superstar Zidane's head-butting of Italian defender Materazzi. But viewers were also exposed to the poetry, force, and excellence of the Italian game; as operatic as Verdi and as cunning as Machiavelli, it seemed to open a window into the Italian soul. John Foot's epic history shows what makes Italian soccer so unique. Mixing serious analysis and comic storytelling, Foot describes its humble origins in northern Italy in the 1890s to its present day incarnation where soccer is the national civic religion. A story that is reminiscent of Gangs of New York and A Clockwork Orange, Foot shows how the Italian game -- like its political culture -- has been overshadowed by big business, violence, conspiracy, and tragedy, how demagogues like Benito Mussolini and Silvio Berlusconi have used the game to further their own political ambitions. But Winning at All Costs also celebrates the sweet moments -- the four World Cup victories, the success of Juventus, Inter Milan, AC Milan, the role soccer played in the resistance to Nazism, and the great managers and players who show that Italian soccer is as irresistible as Italy itself.

A Scandalous History of Italian Soccer

Winning at All Costs

biografia di una città

Milano dopo il miracolo

A critical assessment of the violence, conspiracies, and corporate machinations behind the World Cup offers insight into the game's history and unprecedented popularity while citing the roles played by such figures as Benito Mussolini, Silvio Berlusconi, and the game's victors. Original.

Tom Burns

Franco Basaglia (1924-1980) was an Italian psychiatrist and activist who proposed the dismantling of psychiatric hospitals and pioneered new ideas about mental health and its treatment. Basaglia was also one of the principal proponents of Italy's Law 180, which effectively closed down large mental hospitals in Italy. His ideas and his disciples have had a decisive influence in the move away from institutional care in many parts of the world, particularly in continental Europe and South America. However, Basaglia is strikingly absent from the literature in Germanic and Anglophone psychiatry. Most of the literature about Basaglia in the last 40 years has been published by his followers and supporters and has often been largely positive, with little exploration of differing responses or possible limitations of his model. Basaglia's International Legacy: From Asylum to Community provides an overview of current thinking and the international influence of Franco Basaglia. This resource draws on the combined knowledge of clinicians, policy makers, historians, and social scientists, including a handful of Basaglia's collaborators. It provides an in-depth understanding and critical analysis of the various applications of his thinking worldwide. Organised into three broad sections, chapters examine Basaglia's work and influence in Italy; in the 'Basaglian' countries of Europe and South America; and in those countries where his influence has either been rejected or significantly modified. The Editors bring together the contributions and draw out the important messages (both positive and negative) for current clinical practice and development within international mental health services.

Basaglia's International Legacy: from Asylum to Community

This innovative textbook places Italy at the heart of modern European history, tracing the often difficult relationship between Italians, the State and the Nation. A breeding-ground for radical political and social organisations, Italy saw the emergence of the first Fascist movements seen on the world stage after the First World War. Later, the country produced an anti-fascist movement which helped to create the biggest Communist Party outside of the Eastern bloc. Across this whole period, the political system has been marked by deep legitimation crises, clientelism and corruption. Economically, Italy struggled to keep up with the major industrial powers, but later created a dynamic small business sector which is the envy of the world. Modern Italy - uses source material, including contemporary documents and legislation, to explain Italian history, inspire interest and stimulate further discussion - is organised around broad thematic chapters (The Nation, The State, Economy and Society, Politics) which introduce students to the main areas of debate - includes maps, tables, and boxed material to assist teaching and learning - adopts a multi-disciplinary approach making it ideal for teachers and students of European Politics, European Studies, and Italian Studies, as well as for those studying modern Italian history Clear, concise and well-organised, this essential book introduces readers to the key historical debates, events, and controversies. It helps students to understand the complex nature of Italian history over the last 140 years, without laying out a single and linear version of that history.

Modern Italy

The first history of Italian football to be written in English, ‘Calcio’ is a mix of serious analysis and comic storytelling, with vivid descriptions of games, goals, dives, missed penalties, riots and scandals in the richest and toughest league in the world.

John Foot

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