What did it mean to live with fascism, communism, and totalitarianism in modern Italy? And what should we learn from the experiences of a martyred liberal democrat father and his communist son? Through the prism of a single, exceptional family, the Amendolas, R.J.B. Bosworth reveals the heart of twentieth-century Italian politics. Giovanni and Giorgio Amendola, father and son, were both highly capable and dedicated Anti-Fascists. Each failed to make it to the top of the Italian political pyramid but nevertheless played a major part in Italy's history. Both also had rich but contrasting private lives. Each married a foreign and accomplished woman: Giovanni, a woman from a distinguished German-Russian intellectual family; Giorgio, a Parisian working class girl, who, to him, embodied Revolution. This vivid and engaging biographical study explores the highs and lows of a family that was at the centre of Italian politics over several generations. Tracing the complex relationship between Anti-Fascist politics and the private lives of individuals and of the family, Politics, Murder and Love in an Italian Family offers a profound portrait of a century of Italian life.

‘Good histories illuminate past epochs; the best histories do so by bringing individual lives into high relief. This wonderful book - part record of Fascist brutality, part remarkable history of resistance, and part love story - weaves the fate of Giovanni Amendola and his son Giorgio into the larger narrative of Fascist Italy and its aftermath.’

Roberta Pergher - author of Mussolini's Nation-Empire: Sovereignty and Settlement in Italy's Borderlands, 1922–1943

‘Politics, Murder and Love in an Italian Family offers new perspectives on Italian politics in the twentieth century. As always with R.J.B. Bosworth’s research, it is imaginative, meticulous and exhaustive. This well-paced, engaging study crosses political, social and cultural history, reminding English-speaking readers of the peculiarities of the Italian liberal-conservative political elite, especially its Southern component, during the years of the rise of Fascism.’

John Pollard - author of The Papacy in the Age of Totalitarianism, 1914–1958

'Richard Bosworth’s family saga focuses on the two most famous Amendolas - Giovanni and Giorgio, who became a high-ranking communist, a leading figure on the left in both fascist and democratic Italy.'

Source: London Review of Books