This book sheds new light on the role of the military in Italian society and culture during war and peacetime by bringing together a whole host of contributors across the interdisciplinary spectrum of Italian Studies. Divided into five thematic units, this volume examines the continuous and multifaceted impact of the military on modern and contemporary Italy. The Italian context offers a particularly fertile ground for studying the cultural impact of the military because the institution was used not only for defensive/offensive purposes, but also to unify the country and to spread ideas of socio-cultural and technological development across its diverse population.

Explores the role of the military in Italian society, in both war and peacetime Brings together perspectives from across disciplines Unpicks the use of the military from Unification through to the present day

Autorentext
Mattia Roveri is Visiting Fellow in the Department of Italian Studies at New York University, and Adjunct Assistant Professor of History in the Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences at Hostos Community College, City University of New York.

Inhalt

1. The Military and Us: Towards a New Approach to the Study of the Military in Culture .- 2. What an Aesthetic War': The Italian Media Strategy and the Military during the First World War .- 3. Sports and the Military in Italian Newspapers from the First World War .- 4. The Army and Military Policies of Post-Unification Italy in the Milanese Radical Press .- 5. Verga's 'L'amante di Gramigna': Outlaws and Disorder in Militarized PostUnification Italy .- 6. Military Service in Textbooks for Italian Soldiers, 18611914 .- 7. The Montale Siblings and the Great War .- 8. Two Italian Colonial Massacres .- 9. 'Contadini in divisa': Conscription's Making and Unmaking of Italians from Rural Piedmont .- 10. Italy's Fields of Glory: WWI Battlefield Travel and the Uses of Public Memory, 19191953 .- 11. Visualizing Italy through a Militant Lens: F.T. Marinetti and Italy's Military Experience .- 12. The Artist-Officer: War, Beauty and the Nation in Ardengo Soffici's Kobilek .- 13. Squadrismo and the Militarization of Politics .- 14. Imaging the Military in Modern and Contemporary Italian Art .- 15. Soldiers for the Mob: The Military as Metaphor for Italian Organized Crime .- 16. e Black American Soldier: Italian Cinematic Reflections.