Digital history, revisionism and antifascism: charting a course

Abstract

Digital history represents an exciting avenue for scholars to both publish their findings and apply new research methodologies that include the public as a producer of historical knowledge. However, in the context of studies on the Second World War in Italy, and especially the antifascist Resistance, these types of productions remain rare. This situation is in stark contrast to the vast production of revisionist, pro-fascist or outright fascist materials produced by a plethora of non-scholar actors across the web. This contribution aims to present three different digital history projects tied by the theme of antifascism: the Atlante delle stragi naziste e fasciste, IF – Intellettuali in fuga dall’Italia fascista and Memorie in Cammino. Each of them covers a different timeframe or a different facet of the issue, but all are representatives of a new way forward in Italy concerning historical research and dissemination. This first part of the article focuses on the aforementioned issues and the first project, the Atlante delle stragi naziste e fasciste, while a second (to be published in the next issue of Modern Italy) will cover the remaining two.