Kyle Harrison
to-read
The Pursuit of Italy
The Pursuit of Italy: A History of a Land, Its Regions, and Their Peoples
- Author
- David Gilmour
- Published
- 2011
- Pages
- 447
- Recommended
- Once
Why it’s on the list: Gilmour’s argument that Italy was unified against the grain of its own history — that the regions were the real units, the Risorgimento was a Piedmontese annexation with better branding, and much of the country’s later dysfunction follows from that.
Where I saw it: In the reply thread to @typesfast’s question, “What’s the best history book you’ve read?” (June 5, 2025) — a crowd-sourced list Kyle recovered by hand and saved to his Apple Note “Books To Read”; the full set of replies lives on What’s the best history book… (tweet). It was listed there as “The Pursuit of Italy”.
Connections
- Nationalism — a nation-state assembled before the nation existed.
- Identity — regional identity as the durable layer.
- The Invention of Scotland — Trevor-Roper on the manufactured version of the same problem, named in the same thread.
- What’s the best history book… (tweet) — the thread this recommendation came from.