Garibaldi: Invention of a Hero

Garibaldi: Invention of a Hero. Lucy Riall. Yale University Press. [pounds sterling]19.99. xiv + 482 pages. ISBN 978-0-300-11212-2. Every radical movement needs a hero and Garibaldi was, like Mussolini later, a natural. He was an extra-ordinary man, if not extraordinary. The intelligentsia loved him--the Che Gueverra of his age--and no one could possibly doubt the rightness of Italian unification although he had doubts about a monarchical Italy under Savoy.

After 1860 he grew more radical and more disillusioned but his cult grew. It was only after 1945 that it really began to decline as the monarchy was overthrown and governments rose and fell. Now many doubt the very raison d'etre of a unified Italy. This book is a re-examination of Garibaldi, man and myth. He was not a simple-minded son of the people but an intelligent strategist and self-promoter. His role in the Risorgimento was crucial: a 'moral' movement needed a larger-than-life hero of epic proportions. Garibaldi had, or was said to have, 'charisma'. Lucy Riall is concerned not to praise or belittle but to examine the 'Garibaldi Cult' in Garibaldi's lifetime. To a degree he was a hero because proponents of a secular, unified Italy needed a hero. She has a great deal to say about his later career and about the very foundation of the Italian state. This is an excellent study, an 'essential read' for students of modern Italy. (T.B.)

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