The first conference to be held under the joint sponsorship of the Società degli Storici Italiani and the American Historical Association met at the University of Florence, Italy, on October 25-27, 1983. Financial support was provided by the United States Information Agency, the Italian government’s Ministries of Education and Foreign Affairs, the University of Florence, the Italian National Research Council, the Region of Tuscany, and the City and Province of Florence. The Società degli Storici Italiani plans to publish the proceedings in both Italian and English editions.
The American delegation included specialists in American and Italian history and was headed by the president or the American Historical Association, Philip D. Curtin of Johns Hopkins University, and the executive director of the Association, Samuel R. Gammon. Among the specialists in American history who participated in the conference were Marcus Cunliffe of George Washington University, Linda Kerber of the University of Iowa, Eric Foner of Columbia University, Robert V. Remini of the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle, Michael Kammen of Cornell University, William Leuchtenburg of the University of North Carolina, Douglas North of the University of Washington, Jeffrey Williamson of Harvard University, John Hope Franklin (former president of the American Historical Association) of Duke University, and Arthur S. Link (president-elect of the American Historical Association) of Princeton University. The American specialists in Italian history included Emiliana P. Noether of the University of Connecticut, Clara Lovett of the Library of Congress, Norman Kogan of the University of Connecticut, Ira A. Glazier of Temple University, Charles F. Delzell of Vanderbilt University, A. William Salomone (emeritus) of the University of Rochester, and Shepard B. Clough (emeritus) of Columbia University.
The Italian participants, chosen, like the Americans, from among specialists in both American and Italian history, were Giovanni Spadolini, Giorgio Spini, Giuseppe Galasso, Sergio Bertelli, Mario D’Addio, Ennio Di Nolfo, Giuseppe Butta, Alberto Aquarone, Tiziano Bonazzi, Luigi De Rosa, Valerio Castronovo, Raimondo Luraghi, Gaetano Cingari, and Giuseppe Are. Among them were members of the faculties of the Universities of Florence, Rome, Messina, Pisa, and Genoa.
There were morning and afternoon sessions on each of the three days of the conference, and these six sessions dealt with various manifestations of regionalism and centralization in American and Italian history. An overview of the role played by these contrasting forces in the history of Italy was presented by Giovanni Spadolini of the University of Florence at the opening session, and A. William Salomone summarized the work of the conference at its end.
Aspects of regionalism and centralization in the United States were discussed in papers on the polarization or values in the American North, South, East, and West, the crisis of federalism in nineteenth-century America, the revival of states’ rights in American political culture from about 1918 to 1938 , the early developments of federal regulations, and the social consequences of sectional differences in the United States. Italian speakers dealt with the origins and development of regionalism in Italy, the ideologies of Italian federalism in the early part of the nineteenth century Italian experience with government centralization and decentralization, national and regional economies, and social and regional imbalance in Italy. Comments by an Italian and an American discussant followed each paper, after which the speaker had the opportunity to reply to the commentators before the session was opened to general discussion.
The conference brought out that while regionalism and centralization represent conflicting forces in the historical development of both the United States and Italy, they manifest themselves in unique ways and originate in quite diverse historical traditions. The very differences in the significance and manifestation of regionalism and centralization in the two countries stimulated reappraisals of the role played by these two opposing trends in the history of the American and Italian nation-states. In his closing comments, Professor Salomone emphasized the need to define precisely the meaning of terms such as regionalism, centralization, decentralization, and federalism with their particular historical context.
All participants agreed that the meeting had been valuable. Historians with diverse interests had met to discuss problems relevant, in different ways, to the history of both Italy and the United States. The value of such meetings, of which this was the first, was recognized. The American Historical Association and the Società degli Storici Italiani are now planning the next conference. It will take place in the United States early in 1986 and will be hosted by the American Historical Association. At this conference it is planned 10 broaden the perspective by placing greater emphasis on a comparative approach in the individual contributions and also, where relevant, by including contributions by specialists in fields other than American or Italian history. It is hoped that these conferences, if they can be held at regular intervals, will stimulate a continuing exchange of ideas and information between the Italian and American historical communities, which will be enriching for both.
Emiliana P. Noether
University of Connecticut
