The Bloomsbury Handbook of Modern Italian History Conference: a summary of the papers and discussion. Milan, 11–12 December 2025

Abstract

This summary presents the proceedings of the two-day conference held in December 2025 as part of the preparatory work for The Bloomsbury Handbook of Modern Italian History . Conceived as a collective intellectual workshop, the conference brought together scholars working across chronological, thematic, and methodological boundaries to reflect on how modern Italy’s history can be narrated and rethought in handbook form. Over two days, participants discussed the construction of Italian identity, from the eighteenth century to the present, foregrounding the interaction between political cultures, social structures, and cultural representations. The eight panels explored national identity before and after unification; the role of media, Catholicism, and war; gender, sexuality, and race; crime and deviance; colonialism; urban development and environmental inequality; labour, industrialisation, and economic crises; Fascism and antifascism; and the architectural, cultural, and mnemonic legacies of the twentieth century. The conference functioned not merely as a presentation of individual chapters, but as a forum in which contributors tested interpretative frameworks, identified historiographical gaps, and refined their arguments. In doing so, it played a crucial role in shaping the intellectual coherence of The Bloomsbury Handbook , ensuring that it reflects current debates while offering a critical and inclusive account of modern Italian history.