Catherine Brice and Giuliano Amato among the winners of the Risorgimento award

Promote knowledge of the Italian Risorgimento and the fundamental political-cultural and civil values ​​that characterized it. But at the same time offer tangible recognition to the personalities, Italian and foreign, who have distinguished themselves for their contribution to scientific research and historical dissemination on the themes, facts, figures and ideas that marked the Italian and European nineteenth century . With these objectives the National Risorgimento Award, organized by the Institute for the History of the Risorgimento (Isri) with the patronage of the Ministry of Culture. Awards will be given next November 29thin the presence of the Minister of Culture Alessandro Giuliduring a ceremony that will take place in Rome at the Spadolini Room of the Ministry of Culture.

“Over the last few months – he explains A

THESandro Campidirector of ISRI – two juries made up of Italian and foreign scholars and journalists and cultural operators examined the various applications collected. Not an easy job, considering the value of the names and volumes that have been reported. But in the end the choices made were well thought out but above all of great quality.” There are three sections planned. The Lifetime Achievement Award, dedicated to an Italian or foreign personality who has made a significant scientific contribution to the study of the “long Risorgimento”. The Prize for historical dissemination, intended for an Italian or foreign personality who has contributed significantly to the historical dissemination of the “long Risorgimento”. The Book of the Year Award, awarded to a historical work published in Italy or abroad that has offered an innovative contribution to studies on the “long Risorgimento”. In the end, the awards were assigned by the two technical juries. As regards the overall scientific work, the prize went to the French historian Catherine Bricea long professor of contemporary history at the Institut d’études politiques in Paris and currently professor emeritus at the University of Paris.

A student of Jacques Droz and Pierre Milza, Brice has dealt with Italian history between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries during her academic career, on which she is considered one of the leading experts in France. A specialist in particular on the Risorgimento and liberal Italy, he has studied at length the relationship between the Savoy monarchy and national identity, the theme of political exile in its economic aspects, the compensation policies for the political victims of the Risorgimento, the role of monumentality and of political symbolism in the construction of the unitary state, the events of the city of Rome in the Napoleonic age. Among his monographic works: Monumentalité publique et politique à Rome: le Vittoriano (1998); Histoire de Rome et des Romains de Napoléon Ier à nos jours (2007), Monarchie et identité nationale en Italie, 1861-1900 (2010), Histoire de l’Italie (2003). In addition to the many curations and works written in collaboration with other authors: La memoria perduta. The monuments to the fallen of the Great War in Rome and Lazio (1998), Exile and the Circulation of Political Practices, 19th Century (2020) and Asile-Exil. Du droit aux pratiques, XVIe-XIXe siècle (2022).

The Prize for historical disclosure, assigned by a special jury, went to the journalist, writer and essayist Dino Messina, a historic writer for the “Corriere della Sera”, a newspaper where he worked for thirty years and with which he collaborates with current affairs articles and culture.

In his role as a historical popularizer, in 1997 Messina published the volume We were so much hated (Baldini & Castoldi), in which he compared the events of the partisan Rosario Bentivegna and the ‘boy from Salò’ Carlo Mazzantini. He also wrote the investigative book Save the Italian Constitution (2008) and the essays 2 June 1946. The battle for the Republic (2016), Italians twice. From the foibe to the exodus: an open wound in Italian history (2019) and The canceled history of Italians (2022) on the negative effects of ‘cancel culture’. On the Risorgimento, in particular, he published the volume Italiani per forza. The legends against the unification of Italy that it’s time to dispel (2021), focused on national unity and neo-Bourbon disputes.

The Book of the Year Award – referring to works published, including abroad, during 2023 – finally went to Maurizio Isabella, a professor of modern history at Queen Mary College of the University of London for many years. Formerly a research fellow at Birkbeck College, University of London, and a Stanley J. Seeger Fellow at Princeton University, Isabella – one of the most brilliant historians of her generation – was honored for her book Southern Europe in the Age of Revolutions, published by Princeton University Press and dedicated to the revolution-counterrevolution dialectic in the countries of the Mediterranean area in the first decades of the nineteenth century. A work that has already earned him several international awards for its innovative character on a methodological level – straddling cultural history and political history – and for the extraordinary quantity of materials and documents on which it was built. Among Isabella’s other books, Risorgimento in exile. The liberal international and the age of revolutions published in Italy in 2009.

Finally, the Special Jury Prize, which was awarded to President emeritus of the Constitutional Court
Giuliano Amato for his volume, published in 2023, Once upon a time Cavour. The power of great politics, in which Amato – virtuously mixing his double role as an academic and a politician long active in the institutions – collected and commented on ten famous and important speeches and writings of the Piedmontese statesman, highlighting both his ability to political weaver and diplomatic negotiator, both the solid vision of the future and the foresight based on strong ideal convictions. Exactly the two characteristics that allowed Cavour to play a decisive role in the process of building Italian unity. A lesson in method and content according to Amato that is still extremely relevant today.

“Through the awarding of these awards – concludes Alessandro Campi – we certainly intended to reiterate the importance of the values ​​of unity, freedom and civil commitment promoted during the Risorgimento and which are, still today, the foundation of our national identity. This is, moreover, one of the institutional objectives pursued by the Institute for the history of the Italian Risorgimento since its foundation way back in 1935. But we were also keen to make known and valorise the contribution to the study of the Risorgimento still given today by important and passionate scholars even outside national borders. A sign that that phase of Italian history continues to be the object of attention and research, of reflection and debate, even though the study approaches, investigation methodologies and collective sensitivities have changed in the meantime. History is by definition an instrument of knowledge and an identity factor. That of the Risorgimento, for a country like Italy, is even more so. And promoting its study is also one of the objectives that the Institute has always pursued. This Award in its first edition therefore also aims to be a symbolic recognition of all the great masters who over the decades have contributed to an increasingly detailed, critical and objective knowledge of our past”.