Making and Remaking Italy: The Cultivation of National Identity

In this review of Making and Remaking Italy: The Cultivation of National Identity, the reviewer finds a thoughtful, scholarly collection that will most appeal to readers interested in the cultural roots and contested meanings of the Italian Risorgimento. The book's biggest strength is its range: essays examine how national icons were imagined and repurposed across artistic and cultural media, offering a multifaceted view of how a fragmented peninsula wrestled with unity and identity in the mid-nineteenth century. This review recommends the volume to readers seeking depth rather than a popular narrative.

Key Features

• Interdisciplinary essays: Contributors draw on literature, visual arts and cultural history to show how national identity was cultivated across many media, giving readers multiple entry points into the Risorgimento.
• Comparative perspective: The introduction situates the Italian experience within broader European and global nation-building, which helps readers understand common patterns and unique Italian developments.
• Focus on contested icons: Chapters examine symbols and figures claimed by both Left and Right, clarifying how political uses reshaped cultural memory.
• Historical scope: Coverage before, during and after unification illuminates continuity and change in national imagination across decades.
• Scholarly editorship: The volume is organized to present cohesive themes, making it useful for seminar reading or as a reference for specialized research.

Who It's For

This collection suits graduate students, historians and readers of European cultural studies who want a rigorous, source-aware analysis of how national identity was produced around the Risorgimento. The book is particularly valuable for those researching iconography, political culture and the interplay between high and popular culture in nineteenth-century Italy.

Readers seeking a concise popular history or a narrative biography of key Risorgimento figures should look elsewhere; this is a scholarly essay volume that rewards careful reading and some prior familiarity with Italian nineteenth-century history.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Wide-ranging essays offer interdisciplinary perspectives that deepen understanding of nation-building beyond political events.
• The introduction provides useful context by placing the Risorgimento in a larger European and global frame.
• Close readings of symbols and cultural media reveal how competing political groups reshaped historical memory.

Cons

• The scholarly tone and depth mean the book is less accessible to casual readers seeking a simple narrative overview.

Specifications

Title	Making and Remaking Italy: The Cultivation of National Identity
Editors	Albert Russell Ascoli, Krystyna Von Henneberg
Subject	Italian Risorgimento, national identity, cultural history
Coverage	Before, during and after mid-nineteenth century unification
Approach	Interdisciplinary essays drawing on artistic and cultural media
Contextual framing	Placed within European and global nation-building

Our Verdict

Making and Remaking Italy is a strong, academically minded collection that rewards specialists and students with detailed analyses of how national identity was imagined and contested. It is good value for anyone seeking a nuanced, culture-focused study of the Risorgimento rather than a general narrative, and it serves well as a seminar text or research reference.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this book primarily a political history?
The volume emphasizes cultural and artistic approaches to national identity, though political context is integrated into many essays.

Who edited the collection?
The book is edited by Albert Russell Ascoli and Krystyna Von Henneberg.

Does the book cover the entire nineteenth century?
It focuses on the period before, during and after mid-nineteenth century Italian unification, with attention to continuities and changes across those decades.