Military mentality and culture as indispensable elements of state and constitutional construction
In historiography the figure of the military is often represented by taking for granted an intrinsic educational, intellectual, value and cultural inferiority with respect to the other political and social elites that have crossed the history of Italy and of the modern and contemporary West. This tendency has been favoured above all by the fact that, especially in the Italian case, this actor has almost always been studied exclusively on the basis of the documentation relating to his public dimension. Drawing on private sources, and for eras closer to oral sources, it is possible instead to distinguish the levels of representation, self-representation and practice, functional, behavioural and values, of the military institution and the people who inhabited it, as well as to highlight the continuous and constructive dialogue they entertained with other elites. Moreover, it is only by taking seriously the different worldviews cultivated by members of the military elite who directed and populated Italian and European institutions from the Age of Enlightenment to the Cold War that it is possible to fully understand the history not only of military institutions, but above all of the nation states and supranational organisations of which they were and are an integral part.
Scientific coordination: Anna Grillini, FBK-ISIG
cycle of seminars: Storie in costruzione. Nuovi orizzonti della storia contemporanea
The presentation will take place on Google Meet
Registration is required by Wednesday 23 June 2021 at 12 noon
During the meeting, the webcam and microphone should be deactivated to avoid network overloads.
Speakers
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Jacopo Lorenzini - SpeakerUniversità di MacerataJacopo Lorenzini studied history of institutions in Bologna and Paris, before obtaining a PhD in contemporary history at the University of Siena. For two years he was a fellow at the Italian Institute for Historical Studies, during which time he studied the figure of the professional soldier in nineteenth-century Italy. He is currently a researcher at the University of Macerata, where he works on the mentality and role of the military institution in Cold War Italy. He has published "Uomini e generali. L’élite militare nell’Italia liberale 1882-1915", FrancoAngeli, Milano 2017, e "L’Elmo di Scipio. Storie del Risorgimento in uniforme", Salerno Editrice, Roma 2020.
Registration
Registration to this event is mandatory.
Registration closed on 23/06/2021.