Harry Hearder – Italy: A Short History (1990)
History – 270 pages – my copy (paperback; 1991) a loan from Plymouth University library, courtesy of Jay – read during August 2011
- 2 nods out of 5 -
The Worm has always had a fondness for a modest title; and there is none more modest than those that claim to be ‘a short history’. Many histories are written with great intentions in mind, of sweeping generalisations, of the great search of the all embracing answer. The short history does not belong to this section. Often there to fill a niche market, it is the quick buck for the publisher and the writing credit for the author.
Of course, modest books make great reads. Harry Hearder’s history of Italy is not one of them. But this is not to say that is does not serve its purpose. In the short space of under three hundred pages the entirety of Italian history is on display: from the Roman Republic right through to the modern republic. Space is found for prehistoric Italy and the arrival of the Greeks and society of the Etruscans, the Risorgimento and the ‘Fascist disaster’. As these mighty periods show, Italian history is far from dull and uninspiring. Within these pages are the deeds of great men, of Cicero and Caesar, of Garibaldi and Cavour, of Mussolini and Medici.
Such events astound the reader and Hearder does a pleasing job of blending in the right characters in the correct chapters. Of course, the Renaissance covered in thirty pages fails to convey its true sense; but as a taster to a fascinating country it ticks the boxes. What puts this history above other rivals is Hearder’s amiable personality and sense of phrase, shown nowhere more clearly than in his description of the cautious Cavour, one of the chief unifiers of Italy in the 1860s: ‘He loved moderation immoderately.’
A modest read with modest intentions. But unlike Churchill’s Clement Attlee, Italian history – no matter how short – has little to be modest about.
