The author, a historian has provided a coherent, persuasive, and entertaining interpretation of the paradoxes of Italian life, past and present. Did Garibaldi do Italy a disservice when he helped its disparate parts achieve unity? Was the goal of political unification a mistake? The author's exploration of Italian life over the centuries is filled with provocative anecdotes as well as personal observations, and is peopled with the great figures of the Italian past, from Cicero to the Medicis, from Garibaldi to the politicians of the twentieth century. Gilmour's account of the Risorgimento, the pivotal epoch in modern Italian history, debunks the nationalistic myths that surround it. Italy's inhabitants identify themselves not as Italians but as Tuscans and Venetians, Sicilians and Neapolitans. This book shows that the glory of Italy has always lain in its regions, with their distinctive art, civic cultures, identities, and cuisines, rather than from its misconceived, mishandled notion of a unified nation. -- From publisher description.