Brief History of Italy: Indispensable for Travellers

Jeremy Black's audiobook "A History of Modern Italy" provides a concise and readable account of Italy's past, from the rise of Rome to the fascist era in the first half of the twentieth century. Black draws on the diaries, memoirs, and letters of historic travelers to gain insight into the passions of the Italian people and explores what has given them such cultural clout, as well as the causes and effects of political events and the divisions that still exist today.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 304 pages
Publication date: 05 July 2018
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group

Despite the Roman Empire's renowned 500-year reign over Europe, parts of Africa, and the Middle East, Italy does not possess the same long national history as states such as France or England. Divided for much of its history, Italy's regions have been, at various times, parts of larger, often antagonistic empires, notably those of Spain and Austria. In addition, its challenging and varied terrain made consolidating political control all the more difficult. This concise history covers, in very readable fashion, the formative events in Italy's past from the rise of Rome, through a unified country in thrall to fascism in the first half of the twentieth century, right up to today.

The birthplace of the Renaissance and the place where the Baroque was born, Italy has always been a hotbed of culture. Within modern Italy, the country is fiercely proud of the cultures and identities that mark out Tuscany, Rome, Sicily, and Venice, to name just a few of Italy's many famous regions. Jeremy Black draws on the diaries, memoirs, and letters of historic travelers to Italy to gain insight into the passions of its people, first chronologically, then regionally.

In telling Italy's story, Black examines what it is that has given Italians such cultural clout—from food and drink, music, and fashion, to art and architecture—and explores the causes and effects of political events, and the divisions that still exist today.

Weight: 214g
Dimension: 177 x 129 x 20 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781472140890