Acknowledgments Introduction Younger Brothers Autocritica Liberal Socialism Justice and Liberty The Tragic Hero Conclusion Abbreviations Notes Select Bibliography Index
Thank you for your book which I found interesting to read. I particularly appreciate the sober style with which you have traced Carlo Rosselli's noble political and human portrait, underlining his extreme refusal to bend to the ideological premises of a regime, and his rejection of its moral and intellectual baseness. -- Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, President of Italy An extremely important book...doesn't surrender to the seductions of the time and the falsifications that followed. -- Antonio Negri, co-author of Empire This largely biographical account of the liberal socialism of Carlo Rosselli reads with the animation of a good detective story and yet is strong as scholarship. Rosselli's life, here presented in a vivid, spirited, and highly accessible narrative, makes for captivating reading, and his political activity is clearly and accurately described. -- Walter L. Adamson, author of Avant-Garde Florence: From Modernism to Fascism Professor Pugliese's carefully researched and objective book is a fine contribution to our understanding of the life and thought of Carlo Rosselli, the brilliant Italian anti-Fascist who founded the 'Justice and Liberty' liberal-socialist movement and courageously fought Mussolini's regime at home and abroad until his brutal assassination during the Spanish Civil War. -- Charles F. Delzell, author of Mussolini's Enemies: The Italian Anti-Fascist Resistance Carlo Rosselli is excellent scholarship on an important subject, handled with discerning intelligence and balanced, reflective judgment, and written in crisp, tight prose. -- John Patrick Diggins, author of Mussolini and Fascism: The View from America
Stanislao G. Pugliese is Professor of Modern European History at Hofstra University.
Carlo Rosselli--one of the most courageous and interesting figures
of Italian antifascism--is a rich and overdue subject for a
biography...Pugliese has chosen to write a primarily intellectual
biography and has done a commendable job of explaining Rosselli's
maverick position within European Socialism.
*New York Times Book Review*
Thank you for your book which I found interesting to read. I
particularly appreciate the sober style with which you have traced
Carlo Rosselli's noble political and human portrait, underlining
his extreme refusal to bend to the ideological premises of a
regime, and his rejection of its moral and intellectual
baseness.
*Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, President of Italy*
The reception that Stanislao Pugliese's recent biography of the
antifascist leader Carlo Rosselli has received makes it apparent
that few doubt the subject's importance or its potential
contribution to current understanding of oppressive forces and
those who resisted them during WWII. It is a biography that revives
for the reader not just the few who fought openly for liberty in
the fascist years of Italy, but for their leader as
well...Pugliese's numerous skills will probably be what strike most
readers initially. The most evident of these skills is his capacity
for detail and extensive research. The footnotes alone--which
include police reports, personal letters, press conferences, and
private interviews, as well as locations of foundations and
archives that are crucial yet obscure to the general public--are
almost varied and engaging enough to be published on their
own...Pugliese's attentive scholarship also illuminates, word by
word, Rosselli's masterful use of persuasive language.
*Boston Book Review*
[A] fine intellectual biography...Pugliese's crisp prose delves
evenhandedly into every side of Rosselli's life and thought...[It
is] available to a general readership while also displaying the
utmost academic rigor...In admirable straightforward and
chronological manner, Pugliese's crisp prose delves evenhandedly
into every side of Rosselli's life and thought--his critical
engagements with the two dominant ideologies of his day, liberalism
and socialism; the creation of Justice and Liberty; his
relationship with the more left-wing communist antifascists; the
revolutionary role of the enlightened bourgeoisie; his view of
Italian history. It is to be hoped that this study, available to a
general readership while also displaying the utmost academic rigor,
will once again, as in the 1930s, open the question of the role of
liberalism and socialism in the contemporary world that the
writings of Carlo Rosselli and other like-minded thinkers
raised.
*Philadelphia Inquirer*
By the time of his assassination in 1937, Rosselli had already set
the foundations for new ways of imagining modern liberal
democracies.
*Boston Phoenix*
A clearly written account of the life and times of a
non-doctrinaire socialist thinker and antifascist hero...through a
doctrinal miasma of Marxist orthodoxy, revisionism, and heresy,
Pugliese steers with a sure hand and with a lucidity that the
subject matter, so vexed and acrimonious, fails to confound. This
is, indeed, a scholarly book, but one that is perfectly accessible
to the general public...a wonderful exception.
*Boston Sunday Globe*
Pugliese's study does much to shore up a forgotten legacy: Rosselli
is presented as a significant intellectual and political maverick
whose vision of a 'liberal socialism' has much to offer today's
dispirited transatlantic left.
*Lingua Franca*
Except for experts in European history, most Americans are no doubt
unfamiliar with Carlo Rosselli. This is too bad. For in our age of
pseudo-celebrities and worthies famous for being famous, it's
salutary to be reminded that real heroes once existed, that they
once gave up their lives for great causes...[Pugliese's] account of
the Italian scholar and activist martyred by Mussolini's fascist
regime is the first biography to appear in English [and is] a
welcome addition to our biographical literature.
*Newsday*
Pugliese does an excellent job of showing how Rosselli took his
responsibility as a public intellectual seriously...He saw fascism
as a moral sickness threatening all classes, and he aligned himself
with the working class without ever romanticizing it. Pugliese
provides a lucid account of political events, ideological disputes
and clandestine resistance and brings the context of Rosselli's
thinking to life.
*Publisher's Weekly*
A scholarly biography of the prominent Italian antifascist
intellectual, writer, and activist who was stabbed to death by
political assassins in 1937...Pugliese brings to this admiring
portrait a formidable variety of tools, including a thorough
knowledge of Italian history, language, literature, and
landscape...[His] research is impeccable.
*Kirkus Reviews*
An extremely important book...doesn't surrender to the seductions
of the time and the falsifications that followed.
*Antonio Negri, co-author of Empire*
This largely biographical account of the liberal socialism of Carlo
Rosselli reads with the animation of a good detective story and yet
is strong as scholarship. Rosselli's life, here presented in a
vivid, spirited, and highly accessible narrative, makes for
captivating reading, and his political activity is clearly and
accurately described.
*Walter L. Adamson, author of Avant-Garde Florence: From
Modernism to Fascism*
Professor Pugliese's carefully researched and objective book is a
fine contribution to our understanding of the life and thought of
Carlo Rosselli, the brilliant Italian anti-Fascist who founded the
'Justice and Liberty' liberal-socialist movement and courageously
fought Mussolini's regime at home and abroad until his brutal
assassination during the Spanish Civil War.
*Charles F. Delzell, author of Mussolini's Enemies: The Italian
Anti-Fascist Resistance*
Carlo Rosselli is excellent scholarship on an important subject,
handled with discerning intelligence and balanced, reflective
judgment, and written in crisp, tight prose.
*John Patrick Diggins, author of Mussolini and Fascism: The View
from America*
Stanislao Pugliese has written an outstanding intellectual
biography of the political philosopher and antifascist exile Carlo
Rosselli (1899-1937). It is superlative on many levels: as a
chronicle of Italian leftist political thought in the 1920s and
1930s; as a portrait of a charismatic leader and the movement he
founded; and as an exploration of pre-World War II antifascist
resistance
this book, a Premio Silone winner, is an essential read
for all those with an interest in the Italian left and antifascist
movements, and admirably fills the gap in the literature in English
on Rosselli
In Carlo Rosselli, Pugliese successfully traces the
origins of liberal socialism, putting it within the context of the
heated intellectual debates among the socialists, communists, and
anarchists of the time. He quotes extensively from Rosselli's
writings and also elaborates on and explicates them. The compelling
final two thirds of the book, on 'Liberal Socialism,' 'Justice and
Liberty' and 'The Tragic Hero,' construct a clear analysis of
Rosselli's platform and his actions, and prove the most satisfying
reading.
*Italian Culture*
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