Talking History: The Italian Unification
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Talking History: The Italian Unification
Two brothers telling the story of the Italian Unification, 1790-1870. Our story will start with a quick recap of Italian history from Roman times to 1790, then we'll slow down and examine the complex social, political, and economic themes as we cover the events of the Italian Unification.
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61 episodi
51 - The End
We've come to the end of the series - this will be the last episode of our story. I'd like to spend this episode addressing some of the big questions...
50 - Rome or Death
In this penultimate episode we'll cover the period from 1861 to 1871 and reach the end of our story. Italy started as a collection of small states, ma...
49 - The Harsh Light of Day
We're closing in on the end of the story of the Italian unification. Through both force of arms and cunning, Piedmont has conquered almost all of Ital...
48 - A Kingdom is Born
1860 was a bad year to be a cartographer - or maybe a good year, depending on how you look at it. In 1859 there had been seven states in Italy: the Ki...
47 - David and Goliath
Ever since the fall of the Roman Republic to the French army in 1849, we've focused pretty exclusively on events in Northern Italy, because that was t...
46 - A Vote for Italy
In the space of a single year, Italy will change forever, emerging from the Second War of Italian Unification with an entirely new political landscape...
45 - The Die is Cast
It's the beginning of 1859, and we're at a pivotal point in the story. While it would be an exaggeration to say that the entire Italian Unification hi...
44 - A Recipe for War
A new election in Piedmont will threaten to unseat Cavour, who will only survive through cunning, ruthlessness, and good old fashioned cheating. An as...
43 - The Wounded Heart of Italy
In this episode we're going to catch back up with both of our revolutionary friends Mazzini and Garibaldi. We'll start with Mazzini and the internal...
42 - The Eagle and the Bee
The title of this episode, "The Eagle and the Bee", is a reference to the symbols of the House of Habsburg, the ruling house of Austria, and the House...
41 - The Right Name
Napoleon Bonaparte's rise to power is one of the events that puts the 1790 in our "1790 to 1870" tagline. For almost 20 years Napoleon was deeply invo...
40 - War and Peace
In this episode we'll continue the story of Piedmont's involvement in the Crimean war, and Cavour's role in the peace talks that followed. After that,...
39 - The World Stage
In this episode we're going to tell the first half of the story of Piedmont's involvement in the Crimean War, and Cavour's growing dominance of the Pi...
38 - The Marriage
We'll open this episode with a discussion of why Piedmont had no competition - what had happened to the rest of Italy that Piedmont, backwards, isolat...
37 - Piedmont Seizes the Initiative
In this episode we'll meet Piedmont's new king, and see Piedmont try to regain its footing as it deals with its first constitutional crisis, triggered...
36 - With a Whimper
We left off with Garibaldi leading his men out of the doomed city to continue the fight elsewhere. In this episode we'll follow our intrepid guerrilla...
35 - As Fire Drives Out Fire
Adam is back with the final stages of the Revolutions of 1848 in Europe.
34 - A Devil and a Panther
The poetic, heroic, and tragic defense was burned indelibly into the memory and imagination of Italian patriots, for whom the city of Rome would now f...
33 - Mazzini at the Helm
This episode will focus on two different areas. First, we're going to jump back to Piedmont. Frightened by the success of the republicans in Rome, and...
32 - Roads to Rome
The creation and heroic defense of a new Roman Republic is one of the defining episodes in the story of the Italian unification. It's an epic story, a...
31 - One Brief Shining Moment
Revolutions break out in Italy in earnest when Milan rises up against Austria. The Piedmontese declare war on Austria, ostensibly in a war of national...
30 - The Lonely Right
In this episode we're going to cover the first three months of 1848 in Italy. Sicily will kick off the year with a revolution, followed by a smaller o...
Interview - Italian Urban Development with Doug Cantelmo
An interview with Doug Cantelmo, Professor of Urban Development at St. John's University about urban development in late 19th century Italy.
29 - White Smoke
Clearly, the 1840's were a troubled time in Italy. The decade had begun with increased demands from the business minded classes for economic liberaliz...
Minisode 2 - Listener Questions
Benjamin and Adam take a break from the story to answer questions sent in by listeners.
28 - The Deluge
In the last episode we saw Europe undergo an economic crisis in the 1840's, as harvests failed, trade slumped, and urban unemployment exploded. The in...
27 - Cracks in the Ice
Our story is now rapidly approaching an incredibly important series of events: the Revolutions of 1848. In a single year, a series of revolutions sw...
26 - Fly, Thought, on Wings of Gold
Gearing up for the revolutions of 1848, we lay the groundwork by talking about liberalism, money, books, and opera in 19th century Italy. This unusual...
25 - The Story Thus Far
For this episode we're going to do something different. This episode is going to be divided into two parts. In the first half I am going to give a lig...
24 - The Liberal Conservative
The final character we have to introduce is Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, usually just called Cavour. He was the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of P...
23 - The Hero of Two Worlds
Giuseppe Garibaldi is, by a huge margin, the most famous person in the story of the Italian Unification. But, his fame goes beyond that. In many ways,...
22 - You, Happy Austria, Marry
As we've seen while moving through our story, Austria in the 18th and 19th centuries was heavily involved in Italian affairs, exerting strong control...
21 - Thought and Action
Mazzini organized many revolutions in Italy, but because of his public notoriety was blamed for all of them, even those he had actively opposed. The r...
News Flash - Venetian Secession
In mid-March, 2014, Venetians overwhelmingly voted for secession from Italy in an unofficial, online referendum. Learn more about why this happened an...
20 - The Beating Heart of Italy
The stars of the show are about to come on stage. There are three of them, Giuseppe Mazzini, Giuseppe Garibaldi, and Count Cavour. They are larger tha...
19 - The Changing of the Guard
In the early 1820's most of Italy was still ruled by the same men who had squared off against Napoleon - Grand Duke Ferdinand in Tuscany, King Ferdina...
18 - Ozymandias in Italy
Where classicism had emphasized a cosmopolitan, international perspective, romanticism inspired nationalism and a search for identity. In Italy, thoug...
17 - Plots, Plans, and Revolutions
We cover the revolutions against the Kingdom of Piedmont and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (1820-1821).