La parabola della fortuna scolastica di Garibaldi

This article reconstructs, in general terms, the history of Garibaldi's place in Italian schools from the Unification onwards, thus allowing us to understand the importance that the Risorgimento has had in the civic formation of the nation. By privileging the relationship between school and society, we can see how the myth of Garibaldi maintains a deep-rooted continuity, albeit with inevitable changes from the Liberal period to Fascism, from Fascism to the Republic, up to the definitive rupture caused by the long-term impact of 1968. The main sources used are the school curricula, and the texts books of Italian literature and history, which had a decisive role in the teaching of national history. [Publisher's text]