Fascism and the racial laws of 1938 dramatically changed the scientific research and the academic community. Guarnieri focuses on psychology, from its promising origins to the end of the WWII. Psychology was marginalized in Italy both by the neo-idealistic reaction against science, and fascism (unlike Nazism) with long- lasting consequences. Academics and young scholars were persecuted because they were antifascist or Jews and the story of Italian displaced scholars is still an embarrassing one. The book follows scholars who emigrated to the United States, such as psychologist Renata Calabresi, and to Palestine, such as Enzo Bonaventura. Guarnieri traces their journey and the help they received from antifascist and Zionist networks and by international organizations. Some succeeded, some did not, and very few went back.

Edinburgh Gadda Prize for Cultural Studies Special Mention Written by a well-regarded historian of medicine with an international reputation Fills a gap in the literature on the fortunes of scientific inquiry during the Fascist era in Italy, which have been woefully understudied Draws on a wide variety of unpublished primary sources, including papers from archives in Italy, New York, Oxford and Jerusalem; artifacts from the original psychology library in Florence; and privately held newspapers, photos, and letters.

Autorentext

Patrizia Guarnieri is Professor of Cultural and Social History in the S.A.G.A.S. Department at the University of Florence, Italy. She has been a lecturer in Overseas Studies of Stanford University, USA and taught courses approved by the Psychology Department and the History of Science Program. She is the author of numerous publications, including A Case of Child Murder: Law and Science in Nineteenth-Century Tuscany, which has been translated into English.

Klappentext

Inhalt

1.Psychologists 'in the true sense of the word'.

2.Neo-idealism and 'the Cinderella of the sciences'

3.Fascistization discrimination and persecution

4.The Zionist network and Enzo Bonaventura in Jerusalem

5.The antifascist network and Renata Calabresi in New York