The Legacy of the Italian Resistance

In this rich and detailed interdisciplinary study, Philip Cooke explores the enduring and contested legacy of the Italian Resistance movement. This book scrutinizes the ambivalent and shifting attitudes toward the movement held by the major Italian political parties and the State, caught up as they were in an ambitious project to build a new nation out of the ruins of Fascism and the Second World War. Using a wide array of texts, Cooke bridges the gap between historical and cultural studies and shows how Italian politics, history, and culture have interacted over the long term. Fusing historical and cultural analysis, this is a unique contribution to our understanding of modern Italy.