Edizioni FrancoAngeli - Last issue of MONDO CONTEMPORANEO (2/2011)

An Italian Christian Democratic Senator Between Jews and Arabs: the Journey of Celeste Bastianetto in Israel, June 1948

Fri, 15 Dec 2011 8:00:00 GMT

Paolo Zanini
This paper concerns the journey of Celeste Bastianetto, an Italian Christian Democratic Senator, during the First Arab-Israeli war in 1948. He went to Palestine as Il Popolo correspondent, but it immediately appeared that his presence was crucial, not just for his role as correspondent, but also for the connections he was able to establish. Thus, he had important exchanges with both Israeli political circles and Catholics in the Holy Land. His mission seems significant for two different reasons. It represented the beginning of a relationship between the Italian and Israeli governments. This was one of the first inquiries about the presence of Catholics in the region, after the war and the exodus of Arabs. Bastianetto, who was in contact with the Vatican Secretary of State, understood that the main issue for the future of Christianity in that area didn’t concern the preservation of Holy Places but the need to maintain Christian presence in this land. This episode concerns not only the reciprocal relationship between Italy and Israel but mainly the most tangled issue about the Catholic’s presence in the Holy Land.

«Open Religion» and Nonviolent Thought: Aldo Capitini Between Francesco d’Assisi and Gandhi

Fri, 15 Dec 2011 8:00:00 GMT

Gabriele Rigano
This essay analyzes the sources which inspired Capitini’s thought, starting from the influence that the Franciscan experience of the origins exerted over Capitini’s anti-Fascism, especially at existential, pre-political level. Also the comparison with Gandhi, another of Capitini’s great inspirers, is enlightening, since the nationalist Indian leader appears to be a reference of some importance only in the late years of the post-war period. Francesco d’Assisi appears to be, from this point of view, the most lasting inspired of Capitini’s thought and action from the Twenties to the full maturation of his non-violent thought. Then the essay concentrates on the sources of Capitini’s interpretation of Francesco d’Assisi, finding them out in the thought of Giovanni Gentile, a fundamental but little acknowledged interlocutor of Capitini. In the late years of the post-war period, the reference to Gandhi acquires primary importance even if it never obscures the name of Saint Francis, to whom Capitini’s most lasting realization is connected: the march for peace from Perugia to Assisi.

Socialists in the Stalin Era: the Case of Giuseppe Garretto in Ragusa (1950-1953)

Fri, 15 Dec 2011 8:00:00 GMT

Roberto Colozza
This essay proposes an interpretation of the different identities of Italian socialism in the last years of the Stalinist era based on several categories of unedited sources. These different forms of socialism are described through the analysis of a local case study: the experience of the Sicilian provincial chief Giuseppe Garretto. He was an engineer, a writer for passion and an antifascist. Since the 1920s he has been a revolutionary who did not follow the Stalinist wave that deeply influenced the Psi during the Cold War. As an ally or an antagonist, Garretto frequented the most important national leaders of the Italian post-WWII socialism: Nenni, Basso, Panzieri, Morandi. Being a supporter of the anti-reformist purges within the Sicilian Psi and then a victim of the Stalinist repression against the heterodox militants, Garretto synthesises the panorama of militant passions of those socialisms. They emerge with their specific language, of which the essay emphasizes the semantic and stylistic features.

Father Giuseppe De Luca Between Croce and Papini. Notes on the Recent Publication of a Correspondence

Fri, 15 Dec 2011 8:00:00 GMT

Anna Scarantino
The recent publication by Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura of the correspondence between Father Giuseppe De Luca and the philosopher Benedetto Croce has contributed significantly to the historical appraisal of the relationship between secular and catholic circles in Italy from the ‘20s to the ‘40s. The main thread lies in the views of the «roman priest», that can be fully understood by making reference not only to his writings but also to the parallel correspondence entertained for about thirty years with author Giovanni Papini. Thus the reasons emerge why De Luca could consider as complementary two figures in the Italian culture of the time that were otherwise incompatible and deeply opposed to one another. Not only did De Luca admire both but he aimed at the twin goals of emulating Croce’s cultural action in order to raise the standards of religious studies and launching a constructive dialogue between catholic and secular cultures. The correspondence shows however how difficult such a dialogue would be, even when limited to scholarly studies.

Emmanuel Mounier and the Italian Fascism

Fri, 15 Dec 2011 8:00:00 GMT

Deborah Paci
The author seeks to consider the relationship between Emmanuel Mounier - who was the editor of the Personalist review Esprit - and Italian fascism. This article focuses on a specific event: Mounier’s participation in the Italian-French meeting of corporate studies on May 1935. The understanding of French philosopher’s intellectual and political thought implies an investigation of Mounier’s idea of christianity and, at the same time, an analysis of the Church’s position on the secularization process and the totalitarianism. Mounier’s view of the Italian fascist corporate experiment is not completely negative. This point of view depends on the common ambition shared by the Non-Conformists to reach a "third way" between liberalism and communism. According to Mounier, Fascism as Catholic personalism differs from bourgeois materialism in the importance given to the spiritual dimension. However, it is necessary to condemn violence as worship in order to affirm the supremacy of the high principles whose Fascism is considered to be mouthpiece.

The Legacy of Italy’s Participation in the German War Against the Soviet Union: 1941-1943

Fri, 15 Dec 2011 8:00:00 GMT

H. James Burgwyn
The reasons behind Mussolini’s decision to join Hitler in the invasion of the Soviet Union and the subsequent behavior of the Italian troops have sparked lively controversy in the historical literature. In this historiographical essay, the author initially poses the question: was the Duce driven to intervene by sound, or warped, Realpolitik, or by ideological conviction? The author then turns to the nature of the Italian occupation and examines the extent to which Fascist ideology permeated the minds and influenced the conduct of the Italian soldiers fighting along side the Wehrmacht. Did they believe in the Fascist definition of anti-Communist crusade, or were they fighting more out of duty, honor, and country? Next, the author tackles the thorny question of racism and anti-Semitism in the Italian ranks. In his treatment of these questions, the author discusses the important writings of recent historians on the subject. The author then addresses the nature of the relationship between the Italian and German soldiers. Did they, as «good Italians» forge closer ties with Soviet citizens, thanks to a common outlook and experience, than the socalled killer Wehrmacht warriors? Again, the writings of eminent historians who have recently written on these questions are analyzed. In conclusion, the author evaluates Mussolini’s decision to send a large contingent of his military to fight on the Eastern Front.

Recensioni

Fri, 15 Dec 2011 8:00:00 GMT

Abstracts

Fri, 15 Dec 2011 8:00:00 GMT