Trame risorgimentali tra Sardegna e Sicilia : élites locali e costruzione dello Stato

Some interwoven stories on the Italian Risorgimento arise from local communities, and complete in the national history. This article focuses on Giovanni Battista Serpi, the General of Carabinieri who established the "Corpo dei Carabinieri Reali" in Sicily after its annexation to the kingdom of Savoy. The study on the actions of Serpi and other Sardinian officials in Sicily provides some reflections about the creation of the national state. The difficult interpretation of Sicilian complexity (with its political movements and criminal phenomena) faced with legal and military instruments, highlighting the distance between the model of a centralized state and the local autonomist needs. [Publisher's text].