The Crisis of the Italian State: From the Origins of the Cold War to the Fall of Berlusconi and Beyond

Now that the cat is out of the bag concerning the corrupt compromises at the heart of the post-war Italian state, recent books tend to depict modern Italy as a country whose political system was just waiting to fall apart after the Second World War. Only the extended Cold War from 1947-89 delayed the inevitable, we are told. The strength of this book is that it emphasises the internal reasons for Italy's troubles - and, also, the often underestimated room for maneuver that Italy's politicians in fact possessed to change things for the better. The last chapter or two suffer from being too close to present-day affairs, but the bulk of the book has many useful insights.