Italia e storia globale

The review analyses a diverse range of recent specialised research on various topics in Italian history based on global, transnational and cosmopolitan approaches. In particular, it focuses on two collections edited by Guido Abbattista and Edoardo Tortarolo, which span the 16th to the 20th centuries. While focusing on the issues of nation-building, identity, and “Italianness” arising from the intersection of Italian historiographic traditions and the new approaches popularised by transnational history and the global turn, the review presents several thematic options for navi- gating the essays. These include Orientalism (with a focus on the Ottoman empire), missionary knowledge, urban spaces, translocal and simultaneous processes of polit- ical and economic development, the global roles played by specific social and profes- sional groups, and the cultural and intellectual legacy of 20th-century transnational Italian scholars. [Publisher's text]