A short history... perhaps too short

books:


	• Italy: A Short History Harry Hearder Cambridge University Press, 2002 - 306 pages view larger image
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A short history... perhaps too short

This book was the text used for an Italian culture class I recently took as a requirement for my Italian minor. While it was full of information, I felt that some topics were just skipped over. The Colosseum earns an entire sentence, yet Caravaggio, perhaps the most famous and adored of Italian Baroque painters (the Italians so honored him by printing his picture on the L100,000 note) does not even get a mention. Granted it must have been challenging to cover over 3000 years of civilization in 300 pages, but it just seems like this book skips over too much. If you want a chronology of Italy, this is the book for you, but if you want detailed information into the history of Italy, you may want to look elsewhere.

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History of a famous country.

When one thinks of Italy, one thinks of Rome and Mussolini. The author dispels these notions and shows us the true Italy. This is the birthplace of civilization and Empire. It was also the scene of the Black Death, city states, and the battleground of Europe. The author stages the story of Italy in nine easy to read chapters. One can get a short summary of the stages in Italy's development. This would be a nice read for those about to visit the country.

The one thing I fault this book for is that it tends to jump around. It mentions a name, and then latter on talks about this person. Other than that, there is a nice little summary of the history of this great nation.

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Intended for the student of Italian history and culture as well as the general reader, this new edition presents a clear and concise account of the principal developments in Italian history from the Ice Age to the present day. Dr. Jonathan Morris has updated the late Professor Hearder's long-established and highly successful work with an authoritative account of development in Italy over the past decade.