''Jeremy Black skilfully sketches social, cultural and political trends'' - Christina Hardyment, Times audiobook of the week
''A remarkable mixture of cold history, wide culture and personal experience''
Ciro Paoletti, Secretary General of the Italian Commission of Military History
Despite the Roman Empire''s famous 500-year reign over Europe, parts of Africa and the Middle East, Italy does not have the same long national history as states such as France or England. Divided for much of its history, Italy''s regions have been, at various times, parts of bigger, often antagonistic empires, notably those of Spain and Austria. In addition, its challenging and varied terrain made consolidation of political control all the more difficult. This concise history covers, in very readable fashion, the formative events in Italy''s past from the rise of Rome, through a unified country in thrall to fascism in the first half of the twentiet
