Comprehensive historical introductions to political institutions and processes are presented in Paul Ginsborg, A History of Contemporary Italy: Society and Politics, 1943–1988 (1990, reissued 2003), and Italy and its Discontents: Family, Civil Society, State, 1980–2001 (2003); Frederic Spotts and Theodor Wieser, Italy: A Difficult Democracy (1986); and Joseph LaPalombara, Democracy, Italian Style (1987). Useful insights into the machinations of the power system are provided in Alan Friedman, Agnelli and the Network of Italian Power (1988). The dynamics of various political forces are the subject of Paolo Farneti, The Italian Party System (1945–1980), ed. by S.E. Finer and Alfio Mastropaolo (1985); Geoffrey Pridham, The Nature of the Italian Party System: A Regional Case Study (1981); Grant Amyot, The Italian Communist Party: The Crisis of the Popular Front Strategy (1981); and Judith Chubb, Patronage, Power, and Poverty in Southern Italy: A Tale of Two Cities (1982). A full analysis of the political, social, and economic crisis of the 1970s and the radical transformations that resulted from it is found in Sidney Tarrow, Democracy and Disorder: Protest and Politics in Italy, 1965–1975 (1989). Giuseppe Di Palma Cultural life
Anna Laura Lepschy and Giulio Lepschy, The Italian Language Today, 2nd ed. (1988, reissued 1992), offers a survey of modern Italian and its dialects. A well-illustrated discussion of popular culture and social customs, with a look at rustic decoration and ornament, is found in Catherine Sabino, Italian Country, rev. ed. (1995). David Forgacs, Italian Culture in the Industrial Era, 1880–1980: Cultural Industries, Politics, and the Public (1990), is a history of popular culture and politico-cultural dynamics. John Julius Norwich (ed.), The Italians: History, Art, and the Genius of a People (also published as The Italian World, 1983, reprinted 1989), surveys developments from Roman times to the 20th century. James Hall, A History of Ideas and Images in Italian Art (1983, reissued 1995), traces the inspiration behind Italian art from Etruscan times. Italy’s contribution to modern motion pictures is examined in Peter Bondanella, Italian Cinema: From Neorealism to the Present, 3rd ed. (2001). Russell L. King Melanie F. Knights History General works
A comprehensive survey of Italian history is Reinhold Schumann, Italy in the Last Fifteen Hundred Years: A Concise History, 2nd ed. (1992). A good compendium is George Holmes, The Oxford Illustrated History of Italy (2001). Italy in the early Middle Ages
Comprehensive discussions of medieval Italy are provided in the first three volumes of The Cambridge Medieval History: The Christian Roman Empire and the Foundation of the Teutonic Kingdoms, 2nd ed., vol. 1 (1924, reprinted 1967); The Rise of the Saracens and the Foundation of the Western Empire, 2nd ed., vol. 2 (1924, reissued 1967); and Germany and the Western Empire, 2nd ed., vol. 3 (1924, reissued 1968). Giovanni Tabacco, The Struggle for Power in Medieval Italy: Structures of Political Rule, trans. by Rosalind Brown Jensen (1989; originally published in Italian, 1979), is a major survey of sociopolitical history. Also of interest is Chris Wickham, Early Medieval Italy: Central Power and Local Society, 400–1000 (1981, reissued 1989).
Specific political and social topics of early periods are studied in A.H.M. Jones, The Later Roman Empire, 284–602: A Social, Economic, and Administrative Survey, 2 vol. (1964, reprinted 1986); T.S. Brown, Gentlemen and Officers: Imperial Administration and Aristocratic Power in Byzantine Italy, A.D. 554–800 (1984); Thomas F.X. Noble, The Republic of St. Peter: The Birth of the Papal State, 680–825 (1984); and Barbara M. Kreutz, Before the Normans: Southern Italy in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries (1991). Chris Wickham, The Mountains and the City: The Tuscan Appennines in the Early Middle Ages (1988), is a regional study. Socioeconomic analyses include Bryan Ward-Perkins, From Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages: Urban Public Building in Northern and Central Italy, AD 300–850 (1984); and appropriate articles in Richard Hodges and Brian Hobley (eds.), The Rebirth of Towns in the West, AD 700–1050 (1988). The art of this period is examined by Richard Krautheimer, Rome, Profile of a City, 312–1308 (1980, reissued 2000); and Richard Hodges and John Mitchell (eds.), San Vincenzo al Volturno: The Archaeology, Art, and Territory of an Early Medieval Monastery (1985). Christopher John Wickham The High Middle Ages, 962–1300
Works embracing the whole period include Contest of Empire and Papacy, 2nd ed. (1924, reissued 1968), vol. 5 of The Cambridge Medieval History; and Chiara Frugoni, A Distant City: Images of Urban Experience in the Medieval World, trans by William McCuaig (1991; originally published in Italian, 1983). The reform era is studied in Uta-Renate Blumenthal, The Investiture Controversy: Church and Monarchy from the Ninth to the Twelfth Century (1988, reissued 1991; originally published in German, 1982). The role of medieval Italy in Mediterranean commerce is examined in David Abulafia, Italy, Sicily, and the Mediterranean, 1100–1400 (1987); and Gerald W. Day, Genoa’s Response to Byzantium, 1155–1204: Commercial Expansion and Factionalism in a Medieval City (1988).
Examinations of social and cultural life in the 12th and 13th centuries include Lester K. Little, Liberty, Charity, Fraternity: Lay Religious Confraternities at Bergamo in the Age of the Commune, ed. by Sandro Buzzetti (1988); James M. Powell, Albertanus of Brescia: The Pursuit of Happiness in the Early Thirteenth Century (1992); and Albert Rabil, Jr. (ed.), Renaissance Humanism: Foundations, Forms, and Legacy, Humanism in Italy, vol. 1 (1988).
A broad comparative analysis of the communes is presented in Lauro Martines, Power and Imagination: City-States in Renaissance Italy (1979, reissued 2002); and Daniel Waley, The Italian City-Republics, 3rd ed. (1988). Histories of individual city-states include George W. Dameron, Episcopal Power and Florentine Society, 1000–1320 (1991); Robert Brentano, Rome Before Avignon: A Social History of Thirteenth-Century Rome (1974, reissued 1990); and Frederick C. Lane, Venice, a Maritime Republic (1973, reissued 1991).