Sicily and the Unification of Italy: Liberal Policy and Local Power, 1859-1866This is the first in-depth analysis of the impact of Italian unification on the hitherto isolated communities of rural Sicily. Traditional explanations of Sicily's instability depict a society trapped by a feudal past. Lucy Riall finds instead that many areas of the island were experiencing a period of rapid modernization, as local government increased their organizational efforts. Beginning with the period prior to the revolution of 1860, Dr Riall shows why successive attempts at political reform failed, and analyses the effects of this failure. She describes the bitter and violent conflict between rival elites and the mounting tide of peasant unrest which together threatened the status quo within the isolated communities of the Sicilian interior. Through an examination of the problems of local government - tax collection, conscription, the organization of policing - and of attempts to suppress peasant disturbances and control crime, she shows that the modernization of the Sicilian countryside both undermined the control of the central government and made the countryside itself more unstable. |
Contents
Poverty Protest and Power 18151849 | 30 |
From Risorgimento to Revolution 18491860 | 62 |
The Reality of Government | 76 |
The Impact | 108 |
Liberal Policy and the Control of Public Order 18601862 | 138 |
The Breakdown of Authority 18621863 | 156 |
Common terms and phrases
ACSR administrative Affari Alcamo amministrazione Archivio arrest autonomists avvenimenti Badia Bagheria bandits Bari Biancavilla Bologna Bourbon Bourbon government Brancato Cadorna Caltanissetta campaign carabinieri Catania Cavour Cefalù central government communities countryside criminal Crispi ASP d'Italia dell'Ottocento democrats Documenti draft-evaders economic élites Francesco Garibaldi generale Giarrizzo Girgenti Giuseppe government's governor Govone Gramsci grazia e giustizia Gualterio Ibid Interdonato interior Interno Italy J. A. Davis l'unità La Sicilia land latifondo Lercara letter London Luog luogotenente Mack Smith mafia Medici ment Messina Mezzogiorno Mezzojuso Milan military courts Minister Misilmeri moderate liberals Mordini Naples National Guard Nicolosi Partinico peasant Pezzino Piedmont Piedmontese Politica political Polizia popular potere pref problems province of Palermo pubblica sicurezza reforms republican revolution revolutionary Ricasoli Risorgimento Risorgimento in Sicilia Rome Romeo rural Scichilone Sicilian Sicily Sicily's siege social società South Southern stato Storia dell'Italia Termini Trapani troops Turin unification unrest wrote