Building a Civil Society : : Associations, Public Life, and the Origins of Modern Italy / / Steven C. Soper.

• VerfasserIn: Soper, Steven C.,
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2017]; ©2013
• Year of Publication: 2017
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (320 p.)

The most passionate advocates of Italy's unification in the nineteenth century possessed an almost limitless faith in the benefits of civic association. They also shared a common concern: once Italian unification was achieved and various freedoms were established, would ordinary Italians naturally become responsible, progressive citizens - especially after centuries of foreign rule, regional division, and economic decline? Most unification advocates doubted that their fellow citizens could form a modern, progressive civil society on their own, or that a vibrant association life would develop from the ground up.Building a Civil Society is the first book-length English-language study of associational life in nineteenth-century Italy. Drawing on extensive research in published and unpublished documents - including associational records, newspapers, periodicals, government documents, guidebooks, exhibition catalogues, memoirs, and private letters - Steven C. Soper provides a complex account of Italian liberalism during Europe's age of association. His study also raises important questions about the role that associations play in emerging democracies.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1 In Search of Associational Life -- 2 Poetry and Prose in the Risorgimento -- 3 A New Public -- 4 Popular Capitalism -- 5 Notable Politics -- 6 The Death of a Generation -- 7 Unknown Territory -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index