The Hunchback's Tailor - Giovanni Giolitti and Liberal Italy from the Challenge of Mass Politics to the Rise of Fascism, 1882-1922

Alongside Georges Clemenceau and David Lloyd George, Giovanni Giolitti (1842-1928) stands out as one of the major liberal reformers of late 19th- and early 20th-century Europe. In the first complete English-language study of Giolitti, De Grand examines the political life of Italy's most notable prime minister after Cavour. Giolitti emerges not as a transitional figure leading fledgling Italy into modern democracy, but as a staunch adherent of 19th-century elitist liberalism trying to navigate the new tide of mass politics. De Grand's careful research offers valuable insight into Giolitti as statesman and, through him, a vantage point on the development of Italy during a critical period.

Giolitti's troubled relationship with mass politics defined his years in office. A life-long bureaucrat aloof from the electorate, Giolitti introduced near universal male suffrage-even while commenting that first teaching everyone to read and write would be a more reasonable route-and tolerated labor strikes. Rather than reform the state as a concession to populism, however, Giolitti sought to accommodate the politics of the piazza under the roof of liberal parliamentarianism, first in his pursuit of coalitions with Socialist and Catholic groups, and finally, at the end of his political life, in a failed courtship with Fascism.

List of contents

Introduction
The Apprenticeship of a Statesman, 1842-1892
A Disastrous Beginning: The Presidency of the Council of Ministers, 1892-93
Into the Wilderness: in Opposition, 1894-1901
The Zanardelli-Giolotti Government, 1901-1903
Giolitti's Second Ministry, "Doing it Right," 1904-1905
The Long Ministry, 1906-1909
Domestic Reform and War, 1910-1914
A Second Political Exile, 1914-1920
Giolitti and the Crisis of the Liberal State, 1920-1928
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index

About the author

ALEXANDER DE GRAND is professor of history at North Carolina State University. His publications on modern Italy include The Italian Nationalist Association and the Rise of Fascism in Italy, Italian Fascism: Its Origins and Development, Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany: The Fascist Style of Rule, and Bottai e la cultura fascista.

Product details

• Authors: Alexander J. De Grand, Alexander De Grand
• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Languages: English
• Age Recommendation: ages 7 to 17
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.11.2000
• EAN: 9780275968748
• ISBN: 978-0-275-96874-8
• No. of pages: 312
• Weight: 595 g
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Regional and national histories; Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900, European History, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Political, Biography: historical, political & military, 20th Century, POLITICAL SCIENCE / History & Theory, 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000, HISTORY / Europe / Italy, POLITICAL SCIENCE / World / European, Italy, c 1800 to c 1900, 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899, 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999, Political science & theory, 18th century, c 1700 to c 1799, Political science and theory, Biography: historical, political and military, World History: Politics and Government