This is the third of a series of book talks hosted by Brian Griffith that, in one way or another, impinge upon the history of Europe’s interwar crisis. These book talks will be open to members both of UCLA’s campus community and the general public, and pre-registration is required.

Claudio Fogu, The Fishing Net and the Spider Web: Mediterranean Imaginaries and the Making of Italians (Palgrave, 2021)

“This book explores the role of Mediterranean imaginaries in one of the preeminent tropes of Italian history: the formation or ‘making of’ Italians. While previous scholarship on the construction of Italian identity has often focused too narrowly on the territorial notion of the nation-state, and over-identified Italy with its capital, Rome, this book highlights the importance of the Mediterranean Sea to the development of Italian collective imaginaries. From this perspective, this book re-interprets key historical processes and actors in the history of modern Italy, and thereby challenges mainstream interpretations of Italian collective identity as weak or incomplete. Ultimately, it argues that Mediterranean imaginaries acted as counterweights to the solidification of a ‘national’ Italian identity, and still constitute alternative but equally viable modes of collective belonging.”

Zoom Registration Portal: https://ucla.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAoc-Gqpj4uHNP95cX92KF0uyOSkEM84Tcw