Tom Behan, The Long Awaited Moment: The Working Class and the Italian Communist Party in Milan, 1943–1948. New York: Peter Lang, 1997. 310 pp. $49.95 cloth.

Abstract

Pardon the horrible pun, but this book is an extremely “partisan” account of the politics in Milan (and in Italy) between 1943 and 1948. First, because it deals with the Resistance, the partigiani, Milan workers, and the Communist party during and after the war of liberation; second, because Behan's account condemns the Italian Communist party (PCI) for its “failure” to create socialism when it had the chance. The author is merciless on this latter charge, and the theoretical tail wags the historical dog so often in this book that exhaustion soon sets in. More importantly, the loud refrain of the Party's “betrayal” of a revolutionary alternative drowns out many of the stirring voices from the Milan factories and working-class neighborhoods.