This book explains Italy s endless political instability and its historical, cultural and economic roots. It also illustrates why, even after the creation of the Italian state, Italy was never really unified. Piero Gobetti described fascism once as the "autobiography" of the Italian nation. This book explains why today it is possible to describe "berlusconism" - a cultural, political and social phenomenon in Italy- as the most recent version of this country s autobiography.

Autorentext
Manlio Graziano teaches Geopolitics of Religions at Paris IV La Sorbonne, France. His previously published books include Identité catholique et identité italienne and Il secolo cattolico.

Inhalt
How Premature Development Became a Factor of Backwardness The Phantom Nation The Northern Question Inventing Ancestors The Unhappy Consciousness of Italian Development A Culture without a Nation The Difficult Italianization of the Piedmont The Difficult Piedmontization of Italy The Moderate Social Bloc Transformism Internationalization Crises and Transformism Emerging Sectors and Transformism The Southern Question A Counter-Reformist Identity A Civil 'Guelph' Religion The Quest for a Civil Italian Religion A Petit-Bourgeois Fatherland A Country of Limited Sovereignty Identity and Development The Failure of 'Democratic Nationalization' Italian Metamorphoses Between Europe and the Mediterranean The Internationalization Crisis of the 1990s