Politica ed economia dei trasporti, secoli XIX-XX: Una storia della modernizzazione in Italia

Journal of Transport History, The, Sep 2002 by Paolini, Federico

Stefano Maggi, Politica ed economia dei trasporti, secoli XIX-XX: una storia della modernizzazione in Italia, Il Mulino, Bologna (2001), L45,000.

As Stefano Maggi rightly points out in his introduction, studies of transport are few and far between in Italy, so the publication of a work which offers a synthesis of the development of Italian transport can only be welcomed. Although Britain, France, Germany and Spain have seen the development of historiographical schools devoted to transport, Italy still awaits proper studies of fundamental aspects of transport history such as company history, government policy, the interaction of different modes, labour action and the link between transport, economic development and modernisation. Unfortunately Italy has only a handful of researchers working on transport themes, although the work of these scholars is supplemented to some extent by the outpouring of popular books from transport enthusiasts. Moreover the late development of interest in economic and social history has allowed enormous damage to be done to archives, particularly in fields such as transport which until recently were regarded as of only secondary importance. Italy has only one important transport archive, the Ferrovie dello Stato, and this is still largely inaccessible, while ACI (the Italian Automobile Club) has no archive at all. Meanwhile ministerial papers and those produced by government departments are difficult to trace and consult.

Given these limitations it is not hard to appreciate the importance of Maggi's book. To begin with, it has a thorough bibliographical section which provides a valuable analysis of the most important works on transport. The first three chapters, devoted to the railways, the motor car, and water and airways, follow the chronology of events and provide technological, economic and social analyses of the development of different transport modes. The fourth chapter deals with economic policies and transport as a catalyst of mobility and social change. Herein lies the strength of Maggi's book, with its examination of transport as one of the determining forces in Italy's modernisation. An important case is private motoring, which represented a real watershed between the generations and was a trigger of social change. In the decade from 1955 (the year in which the Fiat 600 was launched) to 1964 the motor car succeeded in transforming the life style of Italians and ensuring the triumph of the urban over the rural model in Italy's social development.

Maggi takes the view that decisions regarding Italy's industrial infrastructure were not given priority in comparison with those concerning monetary policy, the struggle against monopolies and structural reforms. The upshot was that after the Second World War transport planning became dominated by the private sector and motor vehicles - the car being identified with freedom and progress. From 1948, the year in which ANAS (the national road board) was reorganised, there was an expansion of road transport which created a production and social system `almost entirely tied to road transport'. This brought about an imbalance which has been a permanent feature of transport infrastructure in Italy ever since. The result has been the absence of competition for road transport from the railways and inadequate intermodal sea, rail and air transport connections. To this day the Italian transport system, despite new economic policies introduced since the late 1980s, has been characterised by structural deficiencies and the lack of any attempt to consider the transport infrastructure in terms of 'networks'. Maggi's book greatly increases our understanding of how Italy arrived at this juncture.

Federico Paolini, University of Siena