Italy: Revolution, Risorgimento, & Unification, 1789-1870

We follow the convulsions of Italian society -- foreign invasion, popular revolution, peasant revolt, liberal reform, Romantic pageantry, diplomatic dirty dealings, and patriotic war -- through which the residents of a fragmented, poor, and backwards section of Europe overthrew the puppet regimes of foreign rulers and challenged the internal power of the Church, to seize control of their own destiny and create a new nation-state that would take its place among the major powers of the world. Image: "The First Italian Flag Taken to Firenze," by F.S. Altamura, 1859. Suggested further reading: Lucy Riall, "Risorgimento"; John A. David, ed., "Italy in the Nineteenth Century." Musical passage: "Va, Pensiero" from Nabuco, Lyrics by Temistocle Solera, music by Giuseppe Verdi, performed by Novosibirsk Symphony Orchestra Please sign on as a patron to hear all patron-only lectures, including the recent series on the Dead Sea Scrolls and on the Epic of Gligamesh! -- https://www.patreon.com/c/user?u=5530632