Paul Ginsborg and the Historiography of Modern Italy

Book excerpt: This book brings together a group of British and Italian scholars who have made significant contributions to the historiography of modern Italy over the last three decades, dedicated to the influence of Paul Ginsborg. Reflecting Ginsborg's interest in the encounter of social and political history in modern Italy, contributions explore the varied forms taken by activism in civil society. Rather than just treating activism and engagement as limited, circumscribed phenomena within a political system, the essays consider these as interventions in the social. Taken together, the contributions gathered here highlight Ginsborg's contributions to scholarship and activism, as well as advancing our understanding of cultural change, institutional reform and the renewal of community in modern Italian history.