John Foot
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Articles by John Foot
Emma Bonino obituary
In 1974 the Italian feminist activist and later politician Emma Bonino, who has died aged 78, became pregnant. A doctor had told her that she was “sterile”. She attempted to get an abortion and found a doctor in Florence who was willing to help her – for a fee. Bonino felt humiliated and angry – all abortions were illegal in Italy at the time – and became involved with the Radical party, an organisation interested in civil and human rights, and the growing feminist movement.
Carlo Ginzburg obituary
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Carlo Ginzburg obituary
It would be no exaggeration to claim that the Italian historian Carlo Ginzburg, who has died aged 87, revolutionised the practice and understanding of history. In particular, in a series of books published in the 1970s – above all, The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller (1976) – he embraced a new field of study called microhistory, which challenged traditional ways of understanding the discipline of which he was part.
Paolo Maldini — obrońca, który stał się legendą Milanu i symbolem włoskiego stylu
Fragment Po wojnie piłkarzy mających za zadanie krycie indywidualne często określano mianem stoperów. Termin ten zawierał w sobie wszystko, co dotyczyło ich roli na boisku: mieli zatrzymać przeciwnika, w ten czy inny sposób. W odróżnieniu od stylu angielskiego włoscy obrońcy zawsze próbowali wyprzedzić napastników drużyny przeciwnej, utrzymując się przy tym na nogach. Jeśli coś poszło nie tak i nie zdołali tego zrobić, wówczas uciekali się do faulu, który był jednym z kluczowych elementów ich gry.
Years of Lead Revisited
On 5 June 1975, four carabinieri officers, in one car, drove up a winding road to an isolated farmhouse above Acqui Terme in northern Italy. We still don’t know if it was a routine search or if they had received a tip-off. While the driver was parking the car, the other three walked towards the main building. There were two cars parked outside. The carabinieri knocked on the door, a man opened it and a woman appeared at a window above. Moments later, the man at the door threw a hand grenade.
Fascist Italy at War. Men and Materiel by James J. Sadkovich
Ayuda Buscar en la ayuda Buscar en la ayuda Fascist Italy at War. Men and Materiel by James J. Sadkovich [1] University of Bristol Localización: War in history, ISSN-e 1477-0385, ISSN 0968-3445, Vol. 33, Nº. 1, 2026, págs. 108-109 Idioma: inglés Es reseña de: Fascist Italy at War. Men and Materiel James J. Sadkovich Brill, 2025 Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
WIDE ANGLE; THE RISE OF FASCISM
As a historian who has studied and taught courses on Italian fascism, I have spent many hours watching footage and listening to the speeches of dictator Benito Mussolini, who ruled over the country from 1922 to 1943. So I was rather excited to be asked to review the new Sky Atlantic TV series M: Son of the Century. The series focuses on the rise of Italian fascism and its consolidation in power from 1919 to 1925.
Why I loved the new Mussolini drama - by an expert in Italian fascism
By John Foot, Professor of Modern Italian History, University of Bristol As a historian who has studied and taught courses on Italian fascism, I have spent many hours watching footage and listening to the speeches of dictator Benito Mussolini, who ruled over the country from 1922 to 1943. So I was rather excited to be asked to review the new Sky Atlantic TV series M:… Read complete article © The Conversation -
Why I loved the new Mussolini drama - by an expert in Italian fascism
As a historian who has studied and taught courses on Italian fascism, I have spent many hours watching footage and listening to the speeches of dictator Benito Mussolini, who ruled over the country from 1922 to 1943. So I was rather excited to be asked to review the new Sky Atlantic TV series M: Son of the Century. The series focuses on the rise of Italian fascism and its consolidation in power from 1919 to 1925.
Bristol’s Green Wave
Under the UK’s grotesque electoral system, a national breakthrough by a small party is more or less impossible. But in the new constituency of Bristol Central, the Green Party leader Carla Denyer is running Labour’s Thangam Debbonaire very close in the polls. Accounts of the race in the national press often recreate stereotypes of Bristol being somehow alternative, ‘bohemian’, quirky, as if voting Green were a bourgeois eccentricity reserved for people who play lyres and wear purple shirts.
Captain Corelli’s Machine-Gun
In the dreadful 2001 film version of Louis de Bernières’s novel Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, a miscast Nicolas Cage plays the soldier hero. The opening scene depicts the (second) Italian invasion of Greece in 1941. Mussolini’s first invasion, in 1940, had been a political and military disaster, the first sign that Italian fascism’s ambitious war aims were unlikely to succeed.
A Whiff of Grapeshot
When Mussolini took power after the March on Rome in October 1922, few thought he would hold office for long. Giovanni Amendola, a Liberal deputy first elected in 1919, failed to oppose the confidence vote on the new government. King Victor Emmanuel III had capitulated to the fascists, but Amendola had faith in Italy’s constitution and the strength of its democratic institutions.
Books on Italy, Italian Politics & History
We were originally planning to talk just about Italian politics, but the books you’re recommending are a bit broader than that: they also cover Italian history and how to understand Italy and Italians. Four of them are by non-Italian authors. Can you start by telling me how you chose them? I read these books a few years ago because I liked the idea of exploring how some concepts related to Italian politics or history were translated into English.
Fascist Party (PNF) | Definition, Italy, Mussolini, & Symbol
Fascist Italy For 18 months Mussolini ruled through the usual government machinery, pursued a policy of “normalization,” and gradually concentrated power in his own hands. The Fascist squads were incorporated into an official Voluntary Militia for National Security. Ordinary middle-class job seekers flooded into the Fascist Party, making it more respectable and amenable; the nationalists also merged their organization into it, bringing with them much respectable backing in the south.
Giuseppe Lemmi, vittima dimenticata della marcia su Roma
La foto ritrae un uomo in giacca e cravatta. I capelli sembrano essere stati rasati (malamente). È in piedi, serio, dignitoso, tra una massa di altri uomini – molti sono armati o con il manganello, molti sembrano in divisa. A differenza dell’uomo al centro, questi uomini ridono felici, forse esultano. Ma chi è l’uomo al centro, e cosa gli sta succedendo? E perché ha un cartello appeso al collo?
March on Rome: uncomfortable moment for Italy as Giorgia Meloni becomes prime minister a century after fascist takeover
Between the end of October and the beginning of November 1922, Benito Mussolini’s so-called march on Rome took place in Italy. This moment was of global importance. It marked the first fascist takeover of power in the world, set in place a regime which would govern for 20 years, and inspired other far-right movements. The recent election victory of far-right leader Giorgia Meloni has led to much discussion about the roots and ongoing presence of fascism in Italian society.
Quanti stereotipi sull’Italia
Un’immagine allegorica femminile del Regno Unito, con il volto dell’ormai ex prima ministra britannica Liz Truss che in una mano tiene una grande pizza invece di uno scudo e nell’altra, al posto di una lancia, una forchetta con cui infilza degli spaghetti. Sopra il titolo: “Welcome to Britaly”, benvenuti in Britaly.
How Italy Lurched From Anti-Fascism to Anti-Politics
John Foot Berlusconi is a fascinating figure in so many ways. He’s another person that I came across when I went to Italy in the late ’80s and have written about extensively. I saw his rise and fall and rise again. Some people talk about the ventennio (“twenty years”) of Berlusconi — the Berlusconi era — which is also a comparison with the twenty years of [Benito] Mussolini.
Giorgia Meloni may be no fascist. But she evokes grim memories of Italy’s past
During the national holiday of Ferragosto in mid-August, nearly all Italians are on holiday with their families. Politics is usually taboo. Not this year. Italy has been plunged into a very unusual “summer election” (polling day is 25 September), with the collapse of its flimsy, “emergency” coalition government in July. Now, the constant talk is of deals, candidates, constituencies and bartering. Italy’s holidays have been ruined.
Where are those crowns?
In May 1937, troops under Italian command moved into the remote area around the monastery of Debre Libanos in Ethiopia. They had been sent there by Rodolfo Graziani, one of the commanders of the Italian invasion of the country in October 1935 and now the viceroy of Italian East Africa. In February 1937 he had survived an assassination attempt in Addis Ababa.
The Colston Four
Edward Colston was, until recently, almost unknown outside Bristol. I learned about him soon after arriving in the city to work at the university in 2013. He seemed to be everywhere. There was a stained glass window dedicated to him in the cathedral, the main venue for music was called Colston Hall and a nearby office block was called Colston Tower.
David Randall è stato un giornalista universale
David Randall al festival di Internazionale a Ferrara, 4 ottobre 2018. (Francesca Leonardi) John Foot, storico 25 luglio 2021 David Randall al festival di Internazionale a Ferrara, 4 ottobre 2018. (Francesca Leonardi) 25 luglio 2021 10:17 David Randall era della “vecchia scuola”. Un giornalista di un’altra epoca, che ricordava ancora l’inchiostro, le rotative e i caratteri a piombo. Aveva lavorato per quotidiani locali e nazionali britannici.
John Foot · On the Barone · LRB 4 March 2021
In September the Uruguayan footballer Luis Suárez turned up at the Università per Stranieri in Perugia to take an Italian test. This tough language exam, a requirement for anybody seeking Italian citizenship, was introduced by Matteo Salvini, the far-right leader of the anti-immigrant Lega, when he was interior minister in 2019. Suárez passed. There were rumours that he was about to sign for Juventus, Italy’s biggest club, and the winner of Serie A for the last nine years.
Vaffanculo Barone!
In September the Uruguayan footballer Luis Suárez turned up at the Università per Stranieri in Perugia to take an Italian test. This tough language exam, a requirement for anybody seeking Italian citizenship, was introduced by Matteo Salvini, the far-right leader of the anti-immigrant Lega, when he was interior minister in 2019. Suárez passed. There were rumours that he was about to sign for Juventus, Italy’s biggest club, and the winner of Serie A for the last nine years.
San Gino · LRB 23 February 2021
Gino Bartali was one of the greatest cyclists of all time, the ‘man of iron’ who just kept going, and going, especially uphill. In July 1948, as he won the Tour de France, his exploits were said to have prevented a revolution in Italy, where widespread protests had broken out over the shooting of the leader of the Communist Party in the centre of Rome. Born in a small town near Florence in 1914, Bartali was a fervent Catholic; one of his nicknames was il pio, ‘the pious’.
Maradona, un Dio a Napoli
Nel giugno 1984 70.000 persone pagarono mille lire a testa per radunarsi in una grande conca di cemento. Era uno stadio di calcio, ma quel giorno non si giocavano partite: dagli spogliatoi emerse un ometto dai capelli ricci, con la tuta e la sciarpa del Napoli. Ovazioni da tirar giù lo stadio, mentre lui si esibiva in qualche giochetto col pallone di fronte alla folla estasiata. Siamo a Napoli, stadio San Paolo.
Il giorno in cui lo schiavista di Bristol è finito nel fiume
Vivo a Bristol dal 2013. Ogni giorno, andando al lavoro, attraverso il centro della città in bicicletta percorrendo i vecchi moli. Lungo la strada passo sempre – o meglio, passavo – davanti alla statua in bronzo di un uomo con un bastone e i lunghi capelli ricci. Il suo nome è Edward Colston. Sull’iscrizione c’è scritto: “Eretta dai cittadini di Bristol in memoria di uno dei figli più virtuosi e saggi della loro città nel 1895 d.C.”. Ma non è tutto.
Una vita romanzesca
Questo è il settimo e ultimo di una serie di articoli di John Foot pubblicati da Internazionale e dedicati ad antifascisti italiani. Questo articolo è uscito sul numero 1348 di Internazionale. Nel 1915, dichiarata la guerra italiana, io percorsi le piazze della Toscana, della Lombardia, del Piemonte, portando la mia parola contro la guerra e giurando che non avrei mai impugnato il fucile.
Il gigante buono
24 aprile 2020 (Illustrazione di Ale + Ale per Internazionale) 24 aprile 2020 15:52 Questo è il sesto di una serie di articoli di John Foot pubblicati da Internazionale e dedicati ad antifascisti italiani. Questo articolo è uscito sul numero 1347 di Internazionale. Era il 25 settembre 1921. Il deputato socialista Giuseppe Di Vagno si trovava nella cittadina di Mola di Bari, in Puglia, la sua regione natale, e aveva appena partecipato alla cerimonia di apertura di una sede del partito.
Un avvocato per gli operai
17 aprile 2020 Tito Oro Nobili. (Illustrazione di Ale + Ale per Internazionale) 17 aprile 2020 14:42 Questo è il quinto di una serie di articoli di John Foot pubblicati da Internazionale e dedicati ad antifascisti italiani. Questo articolo è uscito sul numero 1346 di Internazionale.
Un rivoluzionario in fuga
Questo è il quarto di una serie di articoli di John Foot pubblicati da Internazionale e dedicati ad antifascisti italiani. Questo articolo è uscito sul numero 1345 di Internazionale. A Bologna, nel 1919, fu pubblicato un opuscolo radicale dal titolo Chi non lavora non mangia. Sosteneva la necessità di scavalcare completamente i ceti medi, formati da commercianti e altre categorie.
La donna che ci ha svegliate
3 aprile 2020 (Illustrazione di Ale + Ale per Internazionale) 03 aprile 2020 14:38 Questo è il terzo di una serie di articoli di John Foot pubblicati da Internazionale e dedicati ad antifascisti italiani. Questo articolo è uscito sul numero 1344 di Internazionale. “L’idea non si distrugge col bastone né con la rivoltella né con gli incendi, essa sola è immortale!”. Argentina Altobelli, 1922 Sono pochissime le donne italiane che arrivarono ai vertici del movimento socialista e dei sindacati.
Il ferroviere sindaco per un’ora
27 marzo 2020 (Illustrazione di Ale + Ale per Internazionale) 27 marzo 2020 15:37 Questo è il secondo di una serie di articoli di John Foot pubblicati da Internazionale e dedicati ad antifascisti italiani prima e dopo la marcia su Roma di Mussolini del 28 ottobre 1922. Questo articolo è uscito sul numero 1343 di Internazionale. Compra questo numero|Abbonati Fu il trionfo suo e del socialismo.
Un pacifista intransigente
20 marzo 2020 (Illustrazione di Ale + Ale per Internazionale) 20 marzo 2020 11:12 Questo è il primo di una serie di articoli di John Foot pubblicati da Internazionale e dedicati ad antifascisti italiani prima e dopo la marcia su Roma di Mussolini del 28 ottobre 1922. Questo articolo è uscito sul numero 1349 di Internazionale.
Calcio. Historia włoskiego futbolu
Włoska piłka bez cenzury John Foot w książce „Calcio” opowiada o historii włoskiego futbolu od jego początków w latach 90. XIX wieku do teraźniejszości. Niemal za rękę prowadzi nas przez labirynt najwybitniejszych zespołów i piłkarzy, pasji i sukcesu. To mieszanka poważnych analiz i zabawnych anegdot. Szczegółowych opisów meczów i zamieszek kiboli. Catenaccio i Calciopoli.
Calcio in Crisis
Interview by Giacomo Gabbuti Francesco Santimone 2019 marked the ninetieth anniversary of Italy’s Serie A. Both a blessing and a curse for millions of fans around Italy and the world, this league is the sacrament of a “sort of fanatical civic religion.” Italians long dedicated their Sundays to Serie A above all else, before matches started spreading to weekdays at the TV schedulers’ behest. But Italian football hasn’t always been what it is now.
Italian Football, a Mirror of a Society in Crisis
Interview by Giacomo Gabbuti Francesco Santimone The year 2019 marked the ninetieth anniversary of Italy’s leading football championship, Serie A. Both a blessing and a curse for millions of fans around Italy and the world, this league is the sacrament of a “sort of fanatical civic religion.” Italians long dedicated their Sundays to Serie A above all else, before matches started spreading to weekdays at the TV schedulers’ behest. But Italian football hasn’t always been what it is now.
Vatosoa Rakotondrazafy: sharing sustainable fishing practices in Madagascar
Vatosoa is the National Coordinator of the MIHARI Network, an organisation working in Madagascar to connect and advocate for small-scale fishing communities along the country’s 5,000km coastline in order to share best practice in sustainable fishing. Vatosoa was recently awarded a Whitley Award for her work Before studying geography I applied for a law degree but was not successful, so this is why I turned to my second passion, geography.
Forgetting Fascism
Never fully exorcised, the memory of Italy’s fascist past is fading. Italy’s Fascist regime ended on 25 July 1943, when Benito Mussolini was arrested on order of the king, Victor Emmanuel III. But fascism was not dead. Democracy was not established until the end of the war and the death of Il Duce – shot by partisans in April 1945. Italy’s postwar leaders were anxious to avoid any repeat of a dictatorship.
Sadakat Kadri: In Prague
Czechoslovakia would have been a hundred years old last Sunday, and Prague spent the weekend celebrating. I’ve been to better birthday parties. The gloomy weather didn’t help – it didn’t just rain on the parades, it poured – and the centennial narratives, never simple, were complicated further by the fact they were commemorating a state that dissolved itself in 1993.
Verso
The Man Who Closed the Asylums Franco Basaglia and the Revolution in Mental Health Care -1 0 Hardback Hardback with free ebook $29.95$11.9860% off 424 pages / August 2015 / 9781781689264 “A portrait of imperfect people who had the passion and pragmatism to put an end to a brutal and broken system.” – Financial Times In 1961, when Franco Basaglia arrived outside the grim walls of the Gorizia asylum, on the Italian border with Yugoslavia, it was a place of horror, a Bedlam for the mentally sick...
How Fascism's Influence Endured in Italy Long After Mussolini's Death
This post is in partnership with History Today. The article below was originally published at History Today. Italy’s Fascist regime ended on July 25, 1943, when Benito Mussolini was arrested on order of the king, Victor Emmanuel III. But fascism was not dead. Democracy was not established until the end of the war and the death of Il Duce — shot by partisans in April 1945. Italy’s postwar leaders were anxious to avoid any repeat of a dictatorship.
Forgetting Fascism
Italy’s Fascist regime ended on 25 July 1943, when Benito Mussolini was arrested on order of the king, Victor Emmanuel III. But fascism was not dead. Democracy was not established until the end of the war and the death of Il Duce – shot by partisans in April 1945. Italy’s postwar leaders were anxious to avoid any repeat of a dictatorship. The postwar constitution – ratified in 1948 – was designed explicitly to prevent the concentration and abuse of power.
The Editors: Stanley Cavell
The philosopher Stanley Cavell, who died yesterday at the age of 91, wrote a piece on the Marx Brothers for the LRB in 1993: Movies magnify, so when pictures began talking they magnified words. Somehow, as in the case of opera’s magnification of words, this made their words mostly ignorable, like the ground, as if the industrialised human species had been looking for a good excuse to get away from its words, or looking for an explanation of the fact that we do get away, even must.
The Archipelago
“It's an astonishing achievement, and structurally so innovative: a pointillistic portrait of a complicated country as the title suggests. It captures the sweep of post-war Italian history but is so precise and detailed as well.
Anna Aslanyan: ‘Hawksmoor’ Revisited
« Previous | Home | Next » ‘Hawksmoor’ Revisited Tags: books | bowie | london | novels | Peter Ackroyd | russian ‘There’s a writer in England called … er, Peter Ackroyd,’ David Bowie said in a short film he made in 2003, ‘who wrote a book called … Hawksmoor I think it was. Wasn’t it?
The Bunga-Bunga Moderate
The Second Coming of Silvio Berlusconi The political career of Silvio Berlusconi has always been marked by the surreal, but perhaps never more so than now. With Italy’s national elections looming on March 4, the 81-year-old former prime minister — the man who more or less invented modern populism in the West — is now presenting himself as the consummate moderate.
Tackling Homelessness, One Deportation at a Time
Last Thursday morning I called my friend Mateusz to tell him a high court judge had ruled against the Home Office policy of detaining and ‘removing’ EU citizens who sleep rough. Not before time, he laughed. The previous day, he and his friends had scarpered after being approached by charity outreach workers in South London. Since May 2016, immigration enforcement teams have been raiding the sleeping sites of homeless Europeans across London.
Can’t you take a bit of sexual assault?
To mark the 60th anniversary of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Michael Gove and Neil Kinnock were interviewed by John Humphrys about the experience of being interviewed by John Humphrys on the Today programme. In the live broadcast from the Wigmore Hall on Saturday, they were happy to go along with the myth of the 8.10 interview and show their willingness to play the game of politics hard and with good humour.
John Sturrock " LRB blog
John Sturrock died yesterday. He wrote his first piece for the LRB, on Sherry Turkle’s Psychoanalytic Politics, in its third issue, and was the paper’s consulting editor from 1993. He will be greatly missed.
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