By Mario Einaudi
Professor of Government, Cornell University

Revised by Shepard Clough
Social Science Research Council

(Published December 1945)

Introduction

From “Geographical Expression” to European Power

The Savoyard Dynasty

• National unity at last
• The weakness of the party system
• The lack of local self-government
• The consequences of economic change
• Mass emigration

The First World War and Its Aftermath

• At the peace conference
• Storm over Fiume
• The workers’ seizure of the factories
• What, no revolution?
• Why didn’t the government do something?
• What parties were there
• The March on Rome

The Rise and Fall of Fascism

• More crust than votes
• The early mask falls away
• Responsibilities and consequences
• The other side of the picture

Main Problems of Economic Reconstruction

• What next?
• What the parties think
• The problem of farm lands
• The new party line-up

Future Relations between the Church and State

• The territorial issue
• The agreements of 1929
• Will the good relations last?

The Main Political Problems to Be Solved

• Will the monarchy be kept?
• The question of colonies
• What to do with them?
• Will the boundary stay at the Brenner Pass?
• Istria, Trieste, and Fiume
• The question reopened

Italy’s Foreign Relations and the Future

• Toward the west
• Toward the United States
• Cobelligerency
• The Italian people and the future

To the Discussion Leader

• How can you plan a discussion?
• Some discussion possibilities
• Some questions for discussion

For Further Reading

Introduction

What is going to happen to Italy, now that the Italians once more have the decision it their own hands?

The answer to that question is important. Italy, with its 46 million people is the fourth nation of Europe in population. It ranks eighth or ninth in area. Geographically and strategically it lies at the center of the Mediterranean world, astride the most important sea and air lanes from western Europe to the Near and Far East.

What the Italian people will do, how they will get along economically, what kind of political system they will work out, and many more such problems will not be solved in a vacuum. The answers will affect the world and be affected by it. They will concern the United States, and we ought to know something about the possibilities. But if we are to have any chance of understanding Italy’s future, we first have to know something about Italy’s past.