The fullest one-volume studies in English are Denis Mack Smith, Modern Italy: A Political History (1997); Martin Clark, Modern Italy, 1871–1995, 2nd ed. (1996); Christopher Duggan, A Concise History of Italy (1994); John Foot, Modern Italy (2003); and Jonathan Dunnage, Twentieth Century Italy: A Social History (2002).
Denis Mack Smith, Italy and Its Monarchy (1989, reissued 1992), covers particular aspects. Christopher Seton-Watson, Italy from Liberalism to Fascism, 1870–1925 (1967, reprinted 1981), is excellent on the first half of the period.
Foreign policy before World War I is the topic of R.J.B. Bosworth, Italy and the Approach of the First World War (1983). The early socialist movement is discussed well in Richard Hostetter, The Italian Socialist Movement (1958); and Louise A. Tilly, Politics and Class in Milan, 1881–1901 (1992). The army is treated in John Gooch, Army, State, and Society in Italy, 1870–1915 (1989). On Giolitti, A. William Salomone, Italy in the Giolittian Era: Italian Democracy in the Making, 1900–1914 (1960), is still very useful. An excellent overview of economic history is given in Gianni Toniolo, An Economic History of Liberal Italy, 1850–1918 (1990; originally published in Italian, 1988).
David Forgacs (ed.), Rethinking Italian Fascism: Capitalism, Populism, and Culture (1986), is a good collection of articles; while Luisa Passerini, Fascism in Popular Memory: The Cultural Experience of the Turin Working Class (1987; originally published in Italian, 1984), is an interesting social history. Denis Mack Smith, Mussolini (1981, reissued 1994), is indispensable; more detail is available in the monumental and controversial work of Renzo De Felice, Mussolini, 4 vol. in 8 (1965–1997), in Italian. The best biography available in English is R.J.B. Bosworth, Mussolini (2002). The rise of fascism in particular is examined by Adrian Lyttelton, The Seizure of Power: Fascism in Italy, 1919–1929, 3rd ed. (2004). Other aspects are dealt with in Jonathan Dunnage, The Italian Police and the Rise of Fascism: A Case Study of the Province of Bologna, 1897–1925 (1997). A look at the “forgotten” class of shopkeepers in an urban setting is Jonathan Morris, The Political Economy of Shopkeeping in Milan, 1886–1922 (1993). The diversity of fascist ideas is revealed in works by R.J.B. Bosworth, The Italian Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives in the Interpretation of Mussolini and Fascism (1998), and Mussolini’s Italy (2006); and Philip Morgan, Italian Fascism, 1919–1945 (1995); and in biographies of leading fascists—e.g., Claudio G. Segrè, Italo Balbo (1987, reissued 1990). The collection by R.J.B. Bosworth and Patrizia Dogliani (eds.), Italian Fascism: History, Memory and Representation (1999), reflects some of the new historical work in these areas, particular in the area of memory. The impact of fascism is discussed by Victoria De Grazia, How Fascism Ruled Women: Italy, 1922–1945 (1992); and Doug Thompson, State Control in Fascist Italy: Culture and Conformity, 1925–43 (1991). Now available in English is research by Emilio Gentile, The Sacralization of Politics in Fascist Italy (1996; originally published in Italian, 1993). An important local study is Perry R. Willson, The Clockwork Factory: Women and Work in Fascist Italy (1993). Useful documents and commentaries can be found in John Pollard, The Fascist Experience in Italy (1998).
Church-state relations are examined in Peter C. Kent, The Pope and the Duce: The International Impact of the Lateran Agreements (1981); and John F. Pollard, The Vatican and Italian Fascism, 1929–32: A Study in Conflict (1985). Anti-Semitism is treated in Susan Zuccotti, The Italians and the Holocaust: Persecution, Rescue, and Survival (1987, reissued 1996); and Alexander Stille, Benevolence and Betrayaclass="underline" Five Italian Jewish Families Under Fascism (1991, reissued 1993). Fascist foreign policy is the subject of Denis Mack Smith, Mussolini’s Roman Empire (1976, reissued 1979); R.J.B. Bosworth, Italy and the Wider World, 1860–1960 (1996); and Richard Lamb, Mussolini and the British (1997).
Charles F. Delzell, Mussolini’s Enemies: The Italian Anti-Fascist Resistance (1961, reprinted 1974), is still useful on the Resistance period. David W. Ellwood, Italy, 1943–1945 (1985), is strong on diplomatic history. The best history of Italian communism is Paolo Spriano, Renzo Martinelli, and Giovanni Gozzini, Storia del Partito Comunista Italiano, 7 vol. (1967–98). An English work on this topic is Alexander De Grand, The Italian Left in the Twentieth Century (1989). For the biennio rosso, Gwyn A.Williams, Proletarian Order: Antonio Gramsci, Factory Councils, and the Origins of Italian Communism, 1911–1921 (1975); and Martin Clark, Antonio Gramsci and the Revolution that Failed (1977), remain useful. A neglected aspect of the period has been studied in detail by Carl Levy, Gramsci and the Anarchists (1999).
Resistance history has taken a new lease on life since the end of the Cold War. A key study, Claudio Pavone Una guerra civile: saggio storico sulla moralità nella Resistenza (1991), is, unfortunately, unavailable in English; but debates can be found in Jonathan Dunnage (ed.), After the War (1999); and in Philip Cooke, The Italian Resistance: An Anthology (1997). Other aspects are covered in Jane Slaughter, Women and the Italian Resistance, 1943–1945 (1997); and Alastair Davidson and Steve Wright (eds.), Never Give In: The Italian Resistance and Politics (1998).
The best study of postwar Italy is without doubt Paul Ginsborg, A History of Contemporary Italy: Society and Politics, 1943–1988 (1990; originally published in Italian, 1989). Ginsborg followed with an analysis of recent decades in Italy and Its Discontents: Family, Civil Society, and State, 1980–2001 (2001; originally published in Italian). The early Cold War years are discussed in Christopher Duggan and Christopher Wagstaff (eds.), Italy in the Cold War: Politics, Culture, and Society, 1948–1958 (1995).
The best accounts of the postwar political system are in Donald Sassoon, Contemporary Italy, 2nd ed. (1997); Frederic Spotts and Theodor Wieser, Italy: A Difficult Democracy (1986); and David Hine, Governing Italy: The Politics of Bargained Pluralism (1993). P.A. Allum, State and Society in Western Europe (1995), an exhaustive work; and Giulio Sapelli, Southern Europe Since 1945: Tradition and Modernity in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, and Turkey (1995), put the Italian system in comparative perspective. An extremely useful selection of articles can be found in Mark Donovan (ed.), Italy, 2 vol. (1998). The classic text on regionalism is now Robert D. Putnam, Robert Leonardi, and Rafaella Y. Nanetti, Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy (1993); and good studies on contemporary regionalism can be found in Carl Levy (ed.), Italian Regionalism: History, Identity, and Politics (1996).