Introduction: perspectives on Garibaldi and Italian unity

Abstract

One hundred and fifty years ago, in October 1860, the legendary dawn meeting at Teano between Giuseppe Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel of Piedmont marked a momentary confluence of competing visions of Italian unification. Although the moment represented an ideological about-face for Garibaldi, his status as the most luminous hero of Italian unification continued to rise like a serene spirit, seemingly untainted by the contested realities of the nation he had helped to create. Of course, that generalisation ignores a thousand exceptions, and already from the 1950s and 1960s, authors such as Denis Mack Smith and Christopher Hibbert had underlined that Garibaldi's life and historic role were not without conflict or enmity (Mack Smith 1957; Hibbert 1965). But it remains true that, all told, Garibaldi's legacy and personal reputation have been characterised, until very recently, by an almost uncanny pact of agreement not to disagree – at least in public.