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The English, The Historians and the Età Giolittiana

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

R. J. B. Bosworth
R. J. B. Bosworth
Affiliation:
University of Sydney
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Review Articles
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The Historical Journal , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , June 1969 , pp. 353 - 367
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1969

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References

1 Add. MS. C/44/102, G. M. Trevelyan papers, Trinity College Library, Cambridge. 21 May 1915 G. M. Trevelyan to H. Jackson (Regius Professor of Greek).

2 Sprigge, C.J.S., The Development of modern Italy (London, 1943), p. 47.Google Scholar

3 See Rudman, H.W., Italian Nationalism and English letters: figures of the Risorgimento and Victorian Men of Letters (London, 1940);Google ScholarMackay, D.F., ‘The Influence of the Italian Risorgimento on British public opinion with special reference to the period 1859–1861’, unpublished D.Phil, thesis, Oxford, 1958.Google Scholar

4 Trevelyan, G.M., Garibaldi's defence of the Roman Republic (London, 1907), pp. 1–2.Google Scholar

6 Grew, R., ‘How success spoiled the Risorgimento’, J[ournal of] M[odern] H[istory], XXXIV, (1962) 239–53.Google Scholar

6 Giolitti's first ministry was from May 1892 to November 1893, but was humiliated by the Bank scandals. He returned as Minister of the Interior in Zanardelli's government, February 1901 to June 1903. Prime Minister from November 1903 to March 1905; May 1906 to December 1909; March 1911 to March 1914; June 1920 to June 1921. The governments of Alessandro Fortis, March 1905 to February 1906, and Luigi Luzzatti, March 1910 to March 1911, although not under Giolitti's titular control, were dominated by his followers.

7 See for example the challenging little text, strangely omitted from Seton-Watson's bibliography, Carocci, G., Giolitti e l'etá giolittiana (Turin, 1961).Google Scholar

8 His two ‘Ministries of a hundred days’ were from February 1906 to May 1906, and December 1909 to March 1910. There is no study of Sonnino's whole career—an unfortunate gap. Giolitti's predecessor of the 1870s and 1880s, Agostino Depretis, and his policy of trasformismo was also regarded in England as a humiliating abandonment of Cavour's greatness. See King, B. and Okey, T., Italy today (London, 1901, 2nd enlarged edition, 1909);Google ScholarUnderwood, F.M., Italy (London, 1912);Google ScholarThe History of the Times, (London, 1947–52), III, 251–2,Google Scholar 290–2.

9 Albertini, L., Venti anni di vita politico, 5 vols. (Bologna, 1950–3).Google Scholar Albertini alleges that after 1906 Italy endured a ‘dittatura giolittiana' (pt. 1, vol. 1, 276). Semantics can allow long arguments but at best Albertini's justification for the term is most doubtful. Albertini's career is described by his brother, Albertini, A., Vita di Luigi Albertini (Rome, 1945).Google Scholar His role in the intervention debate is mentioned in most sources and will be dealt with most thoroughly by B. Vigezzi in L' Italia di froute alia prima guerra mondiale. The Albertinian element in Italian politics still survives. In the recent Italian election campaign, Corriere della Sera can be found hoping the motley of Italian politics would be replaced by a British ‘division of principle’.

10 Albertini, L., The Origins of the War of 1914, 3 vols. (London, 1952–7), II, 245–6,Google Scholar 252–3, 322; cf. Venti anni, pt. 2, vol. 1.

11 See for example the perceptive review article by Pryce, R., ‘Italy and the outbreak of the First World War’, Cambridge Historical Review, xi (1954), 219–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar In contrast note Taylor, A.J.P., The Struggle for mastery in Europe 1848–1918 (Oxford, 1954), p. xxiii n. 4.Google Scholar Taylor excepts the Italians from his generalization ‘all diplomatists were honest according to their moral code’. Seton-Watson rightly dismisses this as rubbish. C. Seton-Watson, Italy, p. 724.

12 Salvemini's works are being collected by Feltrinelli. On the Giolittian era see especially Salvemini, G., ‘Ilministro della mala vita’, e altri scritti sull'Italia giolittiana, ed. Apih, E. (Milan, 1962);Google Scholar‘Come siamo andati in Libia’, e altri scritti dal 1900 al 1915, ed. Torre, A. (Milan, 1963).Google Scholar For some illuminating quotations on Salvemini's activist approach to foreign policy see Torre's introduction above, pp. ix–x.

13 E.g. Salomone, A., Italy in the Giolittian era: Italian democracy in the making, 1900–14 (Philadelphia, 1945);Google ScholarHughes, H.S., The United States and Italy (Cambridge, Mass., 1953), pp. 54–5.Google Scholar Salomone's book is useful and cautious, illustrating Salvemini's final view that the Giolittian system was much better than what followed. Hughes's inferior work misses the nuances and leaves a confused picture of corruption combined with ‘common sense’. Another radical exile, Don Luigi Sturzo, founder of the catholic Partito popolare, had little time for his predecessors. See the translated Sturzo, L., Italy and Fascismo (London, 1926).Google Scholar Gilbert Murray, one of the strongest propagandists of the League of Nations and the type of British liberal internationalist, was in close touch with Sturzo. See Gilbert Murray papers, file Italy, Bodleian library, Oxford.

14 It was typical of the situation created at the time that the London Times on 18 July 1928 commented frigidly on the death of the ‘manipulator’ Giolitti, who had been necessarily replaced by the Duce to overthrow ‘chaos’. The most notable pro-Fascist propagandist in England was Luigi Villari, whose numerous books had little time for giolittismo. See Villari, L., The Fascist Experiment (London, 1926),Google Scholar or on foreign affairs The Expansion of Italy (London, 1926)Google Scholar

15 This is not to deny the difficulty the Italian Commission for the Publication of Diplomatic Documents have had in piecing together the archive that survived Fascism. The published volumes are a monument to intricate research.

16 Typical of past efforts is the article Salata, F., ‘Ministeri degli affari esteri del regno d'ltalia; il marchese di San Giuliano’, Storia e Politico Internazionale, 11 (1940), 5–26.Google Scholar Salata has his sage-hero predicting a second great war for Italy twenty years after the first. Salata's equally nationalist contemporary, Arrigo Solmi, wrote the introduction to Toscano's first major work. Toscano, M., Il Patto di Londra (Bologna, 1934), pp. vii–x.Google Scholar

17 After Patto di Londra see also Toscano, M., Gli accordi di San Giovanni di Moriani (Milan, 1936);Google ScholarLa Serbia e Vintervento in guerra dell' Italia (Milan, 1939).Google Scholar A collected edition of his old articles has recently appeared, Pagine di Storia diplomatica contemporanea, 2 vols. (Milan, 1966).Google Scholar The first volume has World War 1 material. On the Alto Adige he has published many comments. For a summary see Storia diplomatica della questione dell'Alto Adige (Bari, 1968).Google Scholar Typical of his better, detailed and legalist work are three recent articles. ‘Le origini diplomatiche dell'Art. 9 del Patto di Londra relativo agli eventuali compensi all'Italia in Asia Minore’, Storia e Politico, IV (1965), 339–84;Google Scholar ‘Rivelazioni e nuovi documenti sul negoziato di Londra per l'ingresso dell'Italia nella prima guerra mondiale’, Nuova Antohgia, Fasc. 1976–9 (August-November 1965), pp. 433–57, 15–37, 150–65 295–312; ‘II negoziato di Londra del 1915 (con cinque documenti inediti)’, Nuova Antohgia, Fasc. 2003 (November 1967), pp. 313–26.

18 M. Toscano, Gli accordi di San Giovanni di Moriani, p. 1.

19 Croce, B., A History of Italy, 1871–1915 (Oxford, 1929), p. 261.Google Scholar

20 An exception is Salvatorelli, L., A Concise History of Italy (New York, 1940).Google Scholar It dealt with 3,000 years, hurriedly. Chabod, F., A History of Italian Fascism (London, 1963)Google Scholar has also been translated, but not his earlier works. There have been no translations of important post-Fascist defences of Giolitti like Ansaldo, G., Il ministro della buonavita (Milan, 1950);Google ScholarFrassati, A., Giolitti (Florence, 1959).Google Scholar (Frassati, editor of La Stampa, the pro-Giolittian rival to Corriere della Sera provides a most useful antidote to Albertini.)

21 Rodd left a useful autobiography: Rodd, J.R., Social and Diplomatic Memories, 3 vols. (London, 1922–5),Google Scholar Cf. also his ‘ T h e Italian people'. Proc[eedings of the] Brit[ish] Acad[emy] (1919–20), pp. 389–407; Rome of the Renaissance and today (London, 1932).Google Scholar Rodd also left papers and a diary which I have been able to use by the kind permission of his son Francis, second Baron Rennell. Rodd's views were paralleled earlier by the intrusive Times correspondent in Rome from 1897 to 1902, Henry Wickham-Steed. Steed disliked the Italian political system and denied the possibility of change without collapse. He considered Sonnino a man of ‘ardent patriotism and transparent honesty of character’. See Wickham-Steed, H., Through thirty years, 1892–1922, 2 vols. (London, 1924), 1, 103–90.Google Scholar At the same time Steed shared the usual British love of Rome and its ancient glories.

22 Public Record Office, F[oreign] O[ffice] 371/2005/29361 and following. Similarly see the letters from Rodd to Grey in FO 800/65, Grey papers, dated 1 July 1914; 9 July; 20 July; 4 August.

23 FO Confidential Print 8533/195, 5 October 1904, Rodd to Lansdowne. FO 371/916/1610, 11 January 1910, Rodd to Grey. The clerks at the Foreign Office minuted agreement when Rodd described Giolitti as‘the political dictator’ and Sonnino as ‘the honest man’. FO 800/65, Grey papers, 17 March 1914, Rodd to Grey equated Giolitti with ‘insincerity’.

24 J. R. Rodd, Memories, III, 250.

25 See especially debate of 23 October 1935, 98 House of Lords, 5th series, cols. 1174–1180; and further debates of 5 December 1935; 19 February 1936; 30 March; 8 April; 7 May; 1 July. See my unpublished University of Sydney M.A. thesis 1966, R. Bosworth, ‘British Conservative attitudes to Mussolini and Italian fascism, 1922–1936’, p. 146.

26 Trevelyan, G.M., Scenes from Italy's war (London, 1919);Google Scholar ‘Englishmen and Italians: some aspects of their relations past and present’, Proc. Brit. Acad. (1919), pp. 91–108; The Historical causes of the present state of affairs in Italy (London, 1923)Google Scholar accepted the immediate necessity of Fascism.

27 Trevelyan, J.P., A Short history of the Italian people from the barbarian invasions to the present day (London, 1920), pp. 544–9.Google Scholar Cf. the sentimentality of her ‘Wandering Englishmen in Italy’, Proc. Brit. Acad. (1930), pp. 61–84. It w a s the ‘Annual Italian lecture’.

28 Marriott, J.A.R., The Makers of modern Italy, Napoleon-Mussolini (Oxford, 1931), pp. 155–83.Google Scholar For other English ‘expert’ pro-Fascist writing which agreed in condemnation of the Liberal past see R. Bosworth, op. cit. pp. 265–8.

29 Hentze, M., Pre-Fascist Italy: the rise and fall ofthe parliamentary regime (London, 1939), pp. 240–99,Google Scholar 336–40

30 C.J.S. Sprigge, Modern Italy, pp. 72–3. A year later was published Whyte, A.J., The Evolution of modern Italy (Oxford, 1944),Google Scholar less polemical than Sprigge, but still condemning Giolitti as a political ‘ calculator'. Coming to the period from the Risorgimento, Whyte also thought an Austro-Italian clash inevitable (pp. 213–29). Wiskemann, E., Italy (London, 1947), p. 17,Google Scholar dismissed Giolitti as an unscrupulous dictator.

31 C. J. S. Sprigge, Modern Italy, pp. 76–7.

32 Ibid. p. 84.

33 Ibid. pp. 84–5, 112–14.

34 Ibid. p. 85.

35 Albrecht–Carrié, R., Italy at the Paris Peace Conference (New York, 1938,Google Scholar republished Conn., 1966); ‘Italian colonial policy, 1914–1918’, JMH, XVIII (1946), 123–47.Google Scholar His general text, Italy from Napoleon to Mussolini (New York, 1950)Google Scholar continued this position on foreign affairs and was also sympathetic in assessing Giolitti's domestic policy; cf. Howard, C., ‘The Treaty of London 1915’, History, XXV (1941), 347–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Inferring a parallel with Mussolini's activities, Howard wrote of an Italy entangled into a foolish war by a well-organized minority and paying the cost.

36 Hughes, H.S., ‘The Aftermath of the Risorgimento in four successive interpretations’, A[merican] H[istorical] R[eview], LXI (1955–6), 76.Google Scholar Cf. Hilton-Young, W., The Italian left: a short history of political socialism in Italy (London, 1949).Google Scholar

37 Gottlieb, W.W., Studies in secret diplomacy during the First World War (London, 1957).Google Scholar

38 Smith, D. Mack, Italy, a modern history (Michigan, 1959), pp. 227,Google Scholar 264, 356.

39 Ibid. p. 293.

40 Ibid. pp. 285–8.

41 Ibid. p. 221.

42 Webster, R.A., Christian democracy in Italy, 1860–1860 (London, 1961), pp. xii–xiii.Google Scholar

43 E.g. Bartlett, V., Introduction to Italy (London, 1967), p. 166;Google ScholarGrindrod, M., Italy (London, 1968), p. 62.Google Scholar

44 Askew, W.C., ‘The Austro-Italian antagonism, 1896–1914’ inWallace, L.P. and Askew, W.C. (eds.), Power, public opinion and diplomacy: essays in honour of Eber Malcolm Carroll (Durham, N.C., 1959), pp. 172–221.Google Scholar Askew had earlier produced the still definitive Europe and Italy's acquisition of Libya, 1911–12 (Durham, N.C., 1942)Google Scholar based on published diplomatic material and the press. Similarly traditional is Schmitt, B.E., ‘The Italian documents for July 1914’, JMH, XXXVII (1965), 469–72.Google Scholar Although useful these appear old-fashioned before the brilliant article by Vigezzi, B., ‘La neutralità italiana del luglio-agosto 1914 e il problema dell' Austria-Ungheria‘, Clio, 1 (1965), 54–97Google Scholar which at last questions whether the enthusiasms of the press had any inevitable effect on the Government's conduct of foreign policy. It is unfortunate that the most recent article to appear, Renzi, W.A., ‘Italy's neutrality and entrance into the Great War: a re-examination’, AHR, LXXIII (1967–8), 1414–1432,Google Scholar is so naive. Renzi endeavours to defend San Giuliano and Sonnino against the Albertinians by arguing that they aimed to complete the Risorgimento. He is at pains to deny any ‘sale to the highest bidder’. Yet as Albrecht-Carrié has long striven to demonstrate, surely any sensible diplomat should aim at just that. This was the distinction between San Giuliano and Sonnino which Renzi fails to see.

45 Hess, R.L., ‘Italy and Africa: colonial ambitions in the First World War’, J[oumal of] A[frican] H[istory], IV (1963), 105–26;Google Scholar‘The “Mad Mullah” and Northern Somalia’, JAB, v (1964), 415–33;Google ScholarItalian colonialism in Somalia (Chicago, 1966);Google Scholar‘Germany and the Anglo-Italian entente’, in Gifford, P. and Louis, W.R. (eds.), Britain and Germany in Africa: Imperial rivalry and colonial rule (New Haven, 1967), pp. 153–78.Google Scholar

46 Clough, S.B., The Economic history of modern Italy (New York, 1964). On p. 172'Google Scholar however, he shows all the old biases against a Giolitti of trasformisnio who lacked any clear-cut policy. See also the most useful Gerschenkron, A., ‘Notes on the rate of industrial growth in Italy, 1881–1913’, Journal of Economic History, XV (1955), 360–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

47 Thayer, J.A., Italy and the Great War, politics and culture (Madison, Wise, 1964), p. 369.Google Scholar

48 Ibid. pp. 283–4. In the Radiant days Thayer talks of the paper giving way to ‘erotic militarism’ (p. 53).

49 Most of the examples of chapter 8 entitled ‘From Africa to the Great War’ are in fact drawn from the period of the intervento. Thayer also over-emphasizes the importance of Mussolini at this early stage in his career.

50 C. Seton-Watson, Italy, pp. ix–x.

51 C. Seton-Watson, Italy, pp. 306–24.

52 Ibid. p. 324.

53 Ibid. p. 395.

54 Ibid. pp. 272–80.

55 Ibid. pp. 328–31. Cf. Serra, E., Camille Barrére e I'intesa italo-francese (Milan, 1950);Google ScholarL'intesa Mediterranea del 1902: unafase risolutiva net rapporti italo-inglesi (Milan, 1957).Google Scholar

56 C. Seton-Watson, Italy, pp. 349–61.

57 Ibid. pp. 361–2; 366–81; 396–410.

58 Ibid. p. 415 n. 1. Seton-Watson does add that Documenti, series 4, XII ‘substantially confirm Albertini's analysis’. Cf. also pp. 449–50, where Seton-Watson appears to underwrite the efforts of the interventionists in bringing Italy into the war.

59 C. Seton-Watson, Italy, p. 247.

60 Ibid. pp. 252–3.

61 Ibid. pp. 253–5.

62 Ibid. p. 255.

63 Ibid. p. 254.

64 The most important of these are ‘I problemi della neutralità e della guerra nel carteggio Salandra-Sonnino(1914–1917)’, N[uova] R[ivista] S[torica],XLV (1961), 397–466;Google Scholar‘Le“radiose giornate” del maggio 1915 nei rapporti dei prefetti’, NRS, XLIII (1959) and XLIV (1960), 313–44,Google Scholar 54–111;‘II suffragio universale e la “crisi” del liberalismo in Italia (dicembre 1913– aprile 1914)’, NRS, XLVIII (1964), 529–78;Google Scholar ‘‘La neutralita italiana del luglio-agosto 1914 e il problema dell'Austria-Ungheria’, Clio, 1 (1965), 54–97.Google Scholar

65 Tommasini, F., L'Italia alia vigilia della guerra: la politico estera di Tommaso Tittoni, 5 vols. (Bologna, 1934–41).Google Scholar

66 Andre, G., L'Italia e il Mediterraneo alia vigilia della prima guerra mondiale, I,1 Tentativi di intesa Mediterranea 1911–14 (Milan, 1967). Andre held a position under Toscano at the University of Rome. Despite these criticisms, Andre's book is a most useful and thorough beginning to archival work.Google Scholar

67 E.g. Spadolini, G., Giolitti e i cattolici, 1901–1914 (Florence, 1960);Google Scholarde Rosa, G., Filippo Meda e I'età liberate (Florence, 1959);Google ScholarManzotti, F., Il socialismo riformista in Italia (Florence, 1965);Google ScholarLapolemica suit' emigrazione nelVItalia Unitafino alia prima guerra mondiale (Milan, 1962).Google Scholar Of memoir material the most useful recent publication is of course the threevolume selection from the Giolitti papers, Quarrant'anni di politico italiana dalle carte di Giovanni Giolitti, ed. D'Angolini, P., Carocci, G., Pavone, C. (Milan, 1962).Google Scholar In contrast disappointing is the life-and-letters style of L. Luzzatti, Memorie, 3 vols. ed. A. de Stefani (Milan, 1966); typical of the dominance of the intervento and the war is the following list of recent primary publications: Malagodi, O., Conversazioni della guerra 1914–1919, ed. Vigezzi, B. (Milan, 1960);Google ScholarOrlando, V.E., Memorie, 1915–1919, ed. Mosca, R. (Milan, 1960);Google ScholarMartini, F., Diario 1914–1918 ed. de Rosa, G. (Verona, 1966);Google ScholarNitti, F.S., Scritti politici (Bari, 1959–66);Google ScholarCadorna, L., Lettere famigliare, ed. Cadorna, R. (Verona, 1967).Google Scholar

68 Monticone, A., ‘Salandra e Sonnino verso la decisione dell'intervento’, Rivista di studi politici intemazionali, XXIV (1937). 64–89Google Scholar