Race and the Nation in Liberal Italy, 1861-1911

Book excerpt: Race and Nation in Liberal Italy, 1861-1911 examines the development of Italian southern question discourse based on the perceived cultural, political, and economic divide between north and south. This book describes the resonance of meridionalism and how the familiarity of its language lent itself to other discussions of difference--the racialization of the southern question and its appropriation by criminal anthropologists in constructing biological hierarchies; the comparisons between the conquest of Africa and the internal colonization of the south; and the establishment of a southern Italian diaspora whose unique racial characteristics could lead to a possible new form of imperialism in South America.