"Italy's Divided Memory: Fratture d'Italia"

The Guarini Institute of Public Affairs was pleased to present a roundtable discussion on John Foot’s recent book published by Palgrave McMillan and Rizzoli. In his groundbreaking study “Italy’s Divided Memory: Fratture d’Italia” John Foot argues that contemporary Italian history has been marked by a tendency towards divided memory.

Professor John Foot

Events have been interpreted in contrasting ways, and the facts themselves often contested. Moreover, with so little agreement over what happened, and why it happened, it has been extremely difficult to create any consensus around memory. This work delves into Italy’s past, looking at stories of divided memory over various periods in the twentieth century, and points the way toward a fresh understanding of Italian history.

Participants included:

Federigo Argentieri (moderator)
Alessandro Portelli (Professor of American Literature, University of Rome La Sapienza)
Vanda Wilcox (JCU)

The book’s author John Foot, who is Professor of Modern Italian History in the Department of Italian at University College London.