(Eng ed 19–264)
The authors say in the foreword that Italy’s glorious past stands in the way of comprehension of her present, that she is still for the average Englishman and American the land of the renaissance and the Risorgimento, or the country of the picturesque brigand and lazzarone, while in fact the modern Italian is not a romanticist but a positivist, not an excitable, emotional individual but a reflective one. The great change that has come over the people, especially during the last twenty years, has surprised even the nation itself into knowing itself for the first time. The endeavor of the book is to give a short, synthetic view of Italy as she was at the outbreak of the war, as she is today and as she is likely to be after the conclusion of peace, for Italy’s entrance into the war marks the end of the book. The three main divisions of the contents are politics, civil questions, and Italy and the great war. There is an index.
Ind 104:67 O 9 ’20 50w
“They know and love the old Italy, and they have packed much valuable information into their book, despite haphazard statistics and recurrent bellicose homilies on the war. There is need of an authoritative book on new Italy; this is not it.”
+ − Nation 111:161 Ag 7 ’20 220w
“The book provides a certain amount of guidebook information about Italian history, education, industry, etc. But, as an interpretation of ‘New Italy,’ it is a total failure.” A. C. Freeman
− + N Y Call p11 Ag 1 ’20 580w
“The volume as a whole is thoroughly satisfactory, and our only regret is that its brief compass does not permit a fuller development of the subjects with which it deals.”
+ N Y Times 25:14 Je 27 ’20 700w + Outlook 125:542 Jl 21 ’20 80w