The Pursuit of Italy: A History of a Land, Its Regions, and Their Peoples- An Audio Book Review and Giveaway. Part II

Please see last week’s blog for the first part of my review of the audio CD of The Pursuit of Italy: A History of a Land, its Regions, and the People. What follows is only a sampling of what Gilmour covers in this comprehensive history of a country he obviously loves. You have to read (or listen) to the book to glean all that I’ve left out.

The glorious revolution of 1848 marked a new beginning for Italy. General Giuseppe Garibaldi, a self-declared freedom fighter who is considered to be Italy’s George Washington, was one of Italy’s “father of the fatherland.” Along with Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, Victor Emmanuel II and Giuseppe Mazzini, this generation of giants carried out the unification of the eleven states, kingdoms, and duchies. Although the revolution was lost and Italy continued to be divided with Austria dominating the north, the stage was set to build a nation. Under Garibaldi and Mazzini, attempts were made to improve the lives of the poor, provide secular education, and give freedom to the press. Interestingly, Garibaldi declined the invitation to fight for the Union when he realized he wouldn’t be made commander-in-chief and thus could not abolish slavery. 

Italian nationalism was not easily won and actually came about after the state was formed. In 1899 Giustino Fortunato declared that unification was “A sin against history and geography” because it ruined the south. “We are too long a country! The head and the tail will never touch each other. If made to do so, it would mean the head biting the tail.”

Verdi became a symbol of Italian aspirations. Although he was acclaimed as the great unifier, this was only a mystic fusion of his music with longed for unity of the nation. In fact, this was political revisionism: Verdi was not the great hoped-for unifier.

Gilmour is convinced that liberals, Catholics, and socialists underestimated fascist Mussolini. As prime minister, he ruled the country from 1922-1943 and didn’t need a revolution or coup to gain power. He took it constitutionally. No one seemed to take notice when he started taking over positions and squads began beating and killing political opponents. Fascism was like a religion which became equated with Mussolini. It was a technique to acquire power, and along the way, promote virility and maternity. Having just learned the word pastiche, I was interested in Gilmour’s description of Mussolini’s architecture as a pastiche of classism and fascism. 

No history of Italy is complete without the inclusion of the Mafioso. Begun in the mid-1800’s as a secret society in Sicily- an island that wanted autonomy for centuries--no one wanted to admit that the Mafia existed. Under Mussolini, he declared that the Mafiosi was destroyed. As a result, the press couldn’t report their rampant murders and robberies. Mussolini didn’t realize that the Mafia was a way of life, not just a sinister organization that could be extinguished through oppression.

During the latter part of the 20^th century, the Mafioso grew stronger as their tentacles reached further into the government. Laws to criminalize the Mafioso were difficult to enforce. The Cammora rivaled the Mafia in its scale of violence. Between the two of them they were murdering on average over 500 people a year—lawmakers, journalists, and anyone who got in their way. “The Italian state had helped make its citizens prosperous, but it failed to provide security or to protect its officials. Politics, prosperity, and corruption seemed to mix very easily.”

Industrialization in the second part of the 20^th century made Italy as prosperous as in the Middle Ages, exporting furniture, clothing, glass and ceramics. But it left scars of deforestation, cementing over olive and citrus groves, and damaging the landscape of the country which the author quite obviously deplored.

Silvio Berlusconi, who served as prime minister from 2008-2011, was a self-created politician. He did not help the economy as he promised, ignored Parliament, used his own television stations as his pulpit, and surrounded himself with a gaggle of young women. The Italian people forgave his sexual indiscretions because, after all, he was Italian. He advised women to marry someone as rich and seductive like him. He advised Italian men they could be like him if they tried. He routinely laughed off criticism and blamed everything that went wrong on the communists. He bowed to Rome although he was neither chaste or observant. Uneducated about Italian history or philosophy, he denied Mussolini’s terrorism. It was no surprise that the Mafia’s resurgence in the early 21st century coincided with Berlusconi’s ascendency as it became more invisible, but more invasive.

Gilmour often questions if Italy is truly a nation. As recently as 1994 the two main political parties- Communist and Christian Democracy--dissolved and in 1996 there was a short-lived attempt by northern Italy to secede. In recent years Spain’s GDP surpassed Italy. In 2010, China rivaled Italy in the production of spectacles, glass, shoes and clothing. Lethargy often predominates a country where, in 2008, only 16% of Italians trusted their politicians. In 2011, the 150st celebration of unification, the division between the poorer south and the rich north was still present. 

Despite bureaucracy and corruption, Gilmour admits that there is a distinct vibrancy to Italy. His last chapter, “Resilient Italy” discusses the ever-present importance of the family and the provincialism of small towns where Italians still enjoy their local piazzas and churches. 

Gilmour concludes that Italians have created some of the world’s greatest art, architecture, music, and one of its finest cuisines, but it has never been as good as the sum of all its parts.

The narrator, Napoleon Ryan, has an authentic British accent which fits the book, since David Gilmour was British and lived in Italy for many years. Ryan pronounced the Italian names perfectly which added authenticity to this audio book. Click here for an audio clip of the book.

Leave me a comment by January 12th (with your email address if you are new to my blog) to enter the giveaway. 

The Pursuit of Italy: A History of a Land, Its Regions, and Their Peoples- An Audio Book Review and Giveaway. Part I

Thanks to so many of you who visited last week's blog on Joyce Hostetter's cover reveal of DRIVE. The post had  1067 opens--which makes it the third most viewed post on my blog!

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If you are a secret Italophile or dream of touring Venice, Florence, and Pompeii like I do, then this book is for you. Although the talented author, Sir David Gilmour, says that this is not an academic work and is suitable for tourists and amateur historians, the depth and breath of this work is stellar. Almost 20 hours of audio (480 pages) provide the listener with everything you ever wanted to know about "the peninsula." As mentioned before when I review audio books, most of this material is paraphrased.

Audio book provided by Tantor Media. 

The author opens with the geography of the peninsula providing insight into the role the mountain ranges and rivers (which are less navigable then France or England) to the country’s agriculture and economy. 

From there he delves into mythology as well as ancient Italy including Cicero, Anthony, and other political leaders in the years before Christ. Immigration from other countries brought a variety of peoples to the peninsula including Greeks and Celts.

The Roman Empire was brutal in conquest but granted privileges of Roman citizenship, protection, tax advantages, and the right to stand for office. Around 91 BC the army was the chief agent of the process of Romanization of Italia with the hopes of creating a peaceful, united country. In fact, Italy was a land of city states, not a federation with a national ethnic identity. Empire building was the priority resulting in slavery, corruption, crucifixions, and commonplace murders.

The barbarian and Byzantine period which stretched from 330-1453, was colored by the presence of foreign rule, the memory of the pagan past, and the overwhelming force of the Catholic tradition. This era was marked by wars over territories, vying emperors, the territorial dominion of popes, and struggles for power and control between popes and emperors. Secular rulers who disobeyed the pope were commonly excommunicated. One example was Emperor Henry 4^th who dismissed Pope Gregory and called him a false monk. In retaliation, the pope excommunicated the emperor and encouraged subjects to rebel. Although Gilmore didn’t spend much space on origins of papacy, he did comment that the papacy “didn’t care about religion until the reformation.” 

In Gilmour's opinion, Italy's system of city states was predestined to fall. Although the town centers were well preserved, small towns that were close together led to suspicion, anxiety about spies, and large predatory neighborhoods. Fears led to alliances and endless progression of little wars and "endemic factionalism." 

Conflicts with the Hapsburg Empire during the Middle Ages was a history of wars, conquests, divided republics and states. Italy tried to be a great nation and made alliances with France, Prussia, and Austria in attempts to be great.  

At the end of the 18th century, Napoleon led several campaigns to conquer Italy. Although Napoleon successfully carried off many works of art, he was  unsuccessful in conquering the country. Instead, Italy became more unified because the people were disillusioned with his unmet promises. 

Gilmour discusses the origins of words and organizations. The word ghetto was used in Venice to put Jews and other races in separate parts of the city for their protection. Jew wore particular clothing, but were bankers and doctors in a city known to be tolerant of various ethnicities. Caesar led to the Russian word Czar. The International Red Cross was founded because Henry Dunant’s reaction to a bloody battle in Solferino, Italy in 1859.

Gilmore incorporates Italy’s long history of love for written, visual, and musical arts. Virgil’s poetry had impact on Dante and Milton. In fact, Virgil’s description of the Italian countryside has had an enduring visual impact. Over time, art was often a window into politics. 1848, Italian operatic tradition gained a reputation no one would have predicted. The re-emergence of Italian opera was accomplished almost single handedly by Rossini.  

It is difficult to review a book of this length all in one post. Leave a comment this week as well as next when I post Part II and I'll enter your name twice. I'll pick a winner on January 12th. 

For Two Thousand Years: A Review and Audio Book Giveaway

This literary masterpiece revives the ideological debates of the interwar period through the journal of a Romanian Jewish student caught between anti-Semitism and Zionism. Although he endures persistent threats just to attend lectures, he feels disconnected from his Jewish peers and questions whether their activism will be worth the cost. Spending his days walking the streets and his nights drinking and conversing with revolutionaries, zealots, and libertines, he remains isolated, even from the women he loves. From Bucharest to Paris, he strives to make peace with himself in an increasingly hostile world.  [Cover blurb]

I confess.

I don't always remember the book blurbs I read when I select books from the Tantor Audio catalog. 

As a result, when I began listening to For Two Thousand Years I was confused. Without dates, cities, or countries marking the sections, I had trouble following the stream of consciousness writing--I had forgotten that this was Mihail Sebastian's journal. On top of that, add the unfamiliar Romanian names and lack of context clues, and it took me awhile to figure out that when the book opens Sebastian is a law student in Bucharist. 

Mihail Sebastian
1907-1945

Having said that, if you are interested in what it was like to be an intelligent Romanian Jew after World War I in the midst of virulent Anti-semitism and Zionism--then this is a book for you. 

Sebastian waxes philosophical about himself and his own writing; God and Judaism; his beloved country of Romania; women, his peers, his professors, and family; politics, Communism and Marxism; the law and architecture (his second area of study). Below are some of his musings; please keep in mind that I did my best to quote the book accurately. 

• When he observes other Jews who are beaten he tells himself "If I cry, I am lost. I don't want to die of shame."
• He has friends who fight for the right to be a Jew. "I'm never going to be a revolutionary. I'm not the tough kind."
• "I belong to a race that can't shut up."
• "One day we may make peace with the anti-semites but when will we make peace with ourselves?"
• Margot is the woman he loved but let go. "My big ethereal questions are put aside by her living, personal meanings."
• He questions the Zionists. "Are Zionists going to work with pick axes an act of heroism or desperation?"  "What are you going to do with the indigenous Arabs who have the right to a natural death, rather than an abrupt one by Zionist extremism?" (this sentiment reminded me of Blood Brothers).
• His grandmother dies and he wishes she would have embraced it and died more easily. "We die in despair--our last chance to be at peace and be saved." He wonders if mourning is indulgence.
• He comments on his own journal and sees it as folly and his own desire to feel superior to others. 
• "I have never had a conversation with someone without wondering if they know I'm a Jew and if they'd forgive me or not."
• A Zionist friend leaves for Israel and Sebastian muses, "Two thousand years can't be overcome by leaving for somewhere...Only rarely through this history of warfare, victories, and kingdoms, does light pierce the mist. Is it possible to build a new history from such material?"
• He remembers that as a youth he was assigned to a "special regime" for Jews on guard duty. "This made me feel as if Romania was not my Fatherland. That assignment erased two centuries of history." He did not want to sink into despair or martyrdom as he struggled to love that which he was not allowed to love. "I can't cease being a Jew. But I also will never cease to be from the land of the Danube."

According to Wikipedia, Sebastian first published a novel titled, "For a Thousand Years" in 1934. He was hit by a truck and died in 1945. His journal was discovered and published in 1996. As I listened I wondered if he ever imagined that his personal journal would be published and read around the world. 

This book is aptly narrated by Simon Vane. You can listen to an audio file here. Leave me a comment by November 17 if you wish to enter this giveaway. It may be the perfect gift for your favorite historian. PLEASE leave your email address if you think I might not have it. 

Lessons Learned: Giveaway #2

In my last blog I mentioned that I have two more giveaways in store for my readers. Since then I have added one more so you have several opportunities to win wonderful books! Joyce Hostetter won Being Frank but today you have the chance to win Gretchen Griffith's new book, Lessons Learned. 

Gretchen Griffith's book is narrative nonfiction, full of children's stories, but geared towards adult readers. This blurb from her website summarizes it well:

Lessons Learned: The Story of Pilot Mountain School is a powerful history of struggling beyond survival and  a glimpse into a culture long since departed, the rural south of the mid-twentieth century.  In a compelling account, the children of the forties, fifties and sixties reveal secrets of lessons they learned  both inside and outside the school walls. 

This narrative nonfiction is a collective memoir of an era when moonshine and religion coexisted, when barefoot children didn’t know they were poor and when a flush toilet was heralded as the latest technology. Former students and teachers reveal a forgotten world as they look backward through their personal telescopes of time, wisdom and life successes showing Lessons Learned in the South Mountains of western North Carolina. 

As the contemporary world seeks to redefine school, Lessons Learned offers its own definition of education and lessons to learn even in this century.

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Gretchen's book launch is on Tuesday September 25 at from 9:30-2, at the refurbished Pilot Mountain school. A book reading will begin at 10 AM and refreshments will be served. Gretchen has been sharing many of the stories she uncovered on her blog. They are each so precious, I don't know how she chose which ones to use! 

Pilot Mountain School, 1956

Pilot Mountain School, 1990

For the record, there are eight Pilot Mountains in North Carolina and the one this school is named for straddles the Burke/McDowell county line.  It's not the more famous Andy Griffith (no relation) Mt. Pilot on interstate 77, the one from his Mayberry story.

Lessons Learned is available at Ridgetop Books, an imprint of Bright Mountain Books out of Fairview, NC.

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This book would make a great birthday or Christmas present for a special person in your life. Or, you can keep it for yourself! Either way, if you want to enter this giveaway, leave me a comment with your email address by 7 PM on September 24. Gretchen will be happy to autograph it for you!

Two views of Gretchen. She calls the one on the left the
 "Formal Me" and the one on the right the "Normal Me."

Before beginning her writing career, Gretchen taught every age imaginable from Head Start five year olds to college freshman at Appalachian State University and a ninety year old woman in my adult basic education classes at Caldwell Community College. She shares the story behind writing Lessons Learned here.

For more information contact:

Pilot Mountain School

4806 US Hwy 64

Morganton, NC 28655

828-584-6280

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