Towards a Medical Utopia: Medicine, Politics and Citizenship in Post-Unified Italy (1861–1910)

Abstract

Summary In post-unified Italy, public health became a central concern for both politicians and medical doctors. The aim of this article is to look at the social and political roles played by hygiene in the post-unified Italian popular context, with a particular focus on the work of the scientist, politician and populariser Paolo Mantegazza (1831–1910). Mantegazza’s work offers an overview of how hygiene was popularised for the first generation of Italians using a variety of methods, including political and public talks, books and periodical articles but first and foremost, science fiction. The latter offers a possibility of exploring how medicine was considered a tool for a better future—a sort of political manifesto designed to both educate and galvanise Italians about the importance of health first for themselves but also the prosperity of the nation as a whole.