"A concise but comprehensive account of Italian history from the Ice Age to the present day," the late author Harry Hearder declared in the preface. The Professor Emeritus at the University of Wales should have added "interpretative." Italy: A Short History reads at times like an academic paper, a fairy tale, and at other times opinion editorials.
Italian history can be roughly divided into several phrases: the classical age, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Risorgimento, Unification and Fascism, and the first and the second Republic. With each phrases, a map is drawn to demonstrate the changes of territory and power throughout the centuries. The word Italy did not appear on the map until the latter half of the second millennium.
In accord to other history books written by Western scholars and contrary to the history books at Chinese schools, the underlying philosophy of the book is power politics. Often, the author interprets a series of events by analyzing each party's motives and strategies within the overall power structure. Similarly, the history does not appear a linear advancement from a lower level of social structure to higher ones.
The book is interspersed with commentaries on other scholars' work and historical characters. This, together with light and easy language, makes the book a fun read.
Excerpts:
"Nero (AD45-68) has survived in the popular memory for the burning of Rome and his persecution of the Christians…Religious toleration was normally one of the virtues of the Romans, who allowed conquered peoples to retain their local religions, provided they also respected the traditional and official Roman religion. The Christians seemed unique in their conviction that they had a monopoly of religious truth, a conviction which made them trouble-makers in a tolerant society."
"St. Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica was concerned to prove the existence of God, but to reconcile such a belief with Aristotle's respect for the validity of reason. Aquinas believed that true faith and sound reason were not in conflict, that the truth which Aristotle taught and the truth which Christ revealed did not contradict each other."
"The Medici bank in Florence specialized in exchange banking. When loans were made by physically transferring coinage or bullion, on what Fernand Braudel has called an 'unending flow of mule trains,' from one coast of Italy to another, or even from one end of Europe to another, it was clear that a great risk was involed, and the lender or investor deserved some interest."
"The accumulation of wealth, and the employment of credit finance, were no longer viewed with suspicion. The medieval condemnation of usury was modified. But the new attitude did not amount to a rejection of Christianity, only to a rejection of the medieval version of Christianity. The rediscovery of the ancient world was bound to bring pagan elements into Renaissance thought and culture, but there were nearly always to co-exist with Christian faith. The civilization of fifteenth-century Italy was secular rather than pagan. People still sent to church. Rich merchants and bankers ma have preferred paintings of pagan themes or profane portraits, but they still left generous bequests to religious houses."
