By all accounts, Giovanni Giolitti was a calm and cool leader, but one who always provoked passionate feelings. Nationalists, Socialists of all (or most) stripes, and Catholics denounced him. In an appellation that stuck, historian Gaetano Salvemini labeled Giolitti “the Minister of the Underworld.”
This emotion persisted in heated debates among historians, despite more sophisticated interpretations of the “Man from Dronero” that marked the discussion following World War II.
Alexander De Grand’s full-fledged biography of Giolitti is the first to appear in English. It has the merit of being the first to consider Giolitti in the context of Italian politics and the social situation of the time, and to provide the intimate details of how the Italian political and administrative system operated. This approach allows readers to evaluate what it was possible for Giolitti to accomplish, throwing this element onto the scales when considering the appealing—and in some cases the not so appealing—rhetoric of his detractors. At the same time, the author does not spare criticism where he judges Giolitti had shortcomings.
Giovanni Giolitti thus reappears in a fresh perspective. He emerges as a European statesman with positive features and warts, but operating in a perhaps more difficult context than many others. Alexander De Grand’s portrayal will not end the controversy, but it does present a basis for the discussion of Giovanni Giolitti’s legacy in terms that are closer to reality than those presented in previous works.
Spencer M. Di Scala
Italian and Italian American Studies