Abstract
Reviewed by: Roberto Romani, University of Teramo, Italy
The narratives of the Risorgimento developed in Britain and Ireland are the subject of this collection. It focuses on the impact of Mazzini’s ideas, chiefly in the 1840s and 1850s. Although the subject is not new, fresh perspectives are advanced in this book, especially because the peculiarities of the Irish case are taken into account. In Britain, there ran a current of sympathy for a movement, which, it was argued by émigrés and natives alike, was bravely fighting for liberty and moral renewal against the forces of obscurantism, the Catholic Church being prominent among them. Catholic Ireland, in contrast, sided with the pope against Italian nationalism. Nick Carter’s introductory essay provides a useful survey of recent historiography. Furthermore, Carter argues that the pro-Risorgimento stance taken by Britain in 1859–60 helped develop an Irish nationalist movement rooted in Catholicism. As the Irish ‘wondered how the British could support the right of Italians to independence but deny the same right’ to them (19), the answer was found in Britain’s unrelenting hostility to Catholicism. To Carter, the religious divide worked in both countries, meaning that the Risorgimento was a Protestant cause in Britain, and not just one to foster ‘modernity’.
Michael Huggins’ essay deals with the influence of Mazzinian ideas on the mouthpiece of the Young Ireland movement, the Nation newspaper (1842–48). Huggins focuses on the romantic conception of the nation, the emphasis on education, anti-materialism, martyrdom and the belief in a future family of nations. The gist of the chapter is to show that Irish nationalism in the 1840s was ‘cosmopolitan’, owing much to a ‘pan-European romantic political culture’ (50). The essay by Joan Allen discusses not only Mazzini’s contributions to British radical journalism from 1848 to 1855, but also the coverage it gave him. Allen points to the relevance of the Genoese to the shaping of British radicalism – curiously, at a time when Mazzini was heavily criticized by fellow Italians (like Cattaneo, Macchi, Manin or Franchi), his profile in Britain was undiminished.
Elena Bacchin offers an account of Felice Orsini’s activities in Britain in 1856–57. He published two memoirs and embarked on a speaking tour of England and Scotland, skilfully presenting himself as a Romantic hero elaborating on Banti’s ‘deep images’. This reviewer sees a parallel between Orsini and Pisacane: both rejected Mazzini’s politics but retained a Mazzinian sensibility, leading them to become willing martyrs of the notorious ‘propaganda of the deed’. The story of Giovanni Ruffini, the Mazzinian patriot turned novelist in England, is recounted by Raffaella Antinucci. She points to Doctor Antonio (1855) as exemplary of Ruffini’s eagerness to correct the stereotype of the Italian character – he reminded his Anglo-Saxon audience that Italy too could produce gentlemen and earnest patriots. Antinucci pays scant attention to Ruffini’s most successful novel, the semi-autobiographical Lorenzo Benoni or Passages in the Life of an Italian (1853), arguably because it did not fit well in her interpretation. Here Ruffini looked back on his friendship and collaboration with Mazzini with irony and affectionate detachment; the narrative, set in Genoa, culminates with Benoni’s (namely Ruffini’s) participation in a Mazzinian conspiracy, eventually leading to his escape to France. The novel was a Bildungsroman, testifying to Ruffini’s emancipation from a totalitarian form of militancy. Anne O’Connor deals with the Irish tours of Alessandro Gavazzi, the former Barnabite monk who preached on the Italian struggle and the wickedness of the papacy in the United Kingdom and North America from 1852. As one would expect, Gavazzi’s incendiary lectures met with opposite feelings by Irish Catholics and Protestants. This chapter highlights one of the major themes of the book: ‘the link between sectarian tensions and Italian affairs’ (139), to the effect that the Risorgimento was viewed as a sort of religious struggle.
O. J. Wright provides an account of ‘official’ British perceptions of Italy during the first 15 years of unity. The disasters brought to the country by the policy of ‘Piedmontization’, the rebellions in the south, the systematic violations of civil rights and the irresponsibility of the king were duly chronicled by British officials. Wright argues that they failed to understand the extent of the various difficulties the new state was facing, and that they adopted an arrogant tone. This reviewer is instead impressed by the acumen of British diplomats and observers, correctly putting their finger on all the chief issues of the times. Marcella Pellegrino Sutcliffe addresses early Italian feminism as seen through the Englishwoman’s Review in the 1870s and 1880s. By reporting on the Italian women’s struggles in many fields in the light of Mazzini’s ideals, the review recasts the image of Italian women as patriotic and socially engaged. The final chapter is by Chiara Chini, discussing the Italian understanding of the Irish war of independence between 1919 and 1921. Chini focuses on the use of Risorgimento tropes by nationalists, fascists and republicans, namely by the forces which ranged against liberalism. Again, Mazzini’s ideas, including his advocacy of other people’s martyrdom, were called into play.