This lively collection of essays presents a range of innovative research on the history of the private sphere in Liberal and Fascist Italy, with a particular focus on sexuality, gender and race all aspects which have received scarce attention in much of the existing historiography. It includes articles on foundlings and their mothers, the role of midwives, changing attitudes to sexuality, adultery trials, the Fascist persecution of homosexuals, debates about divorce and (going beyond Italy to its empire) the treatment of mixed race children and their mothers in Eritrea. Key themes of this collection include the contrasting attitudes of the Liberal and Fascist governments to the role of the state in the private sphere, the influence of the Church and the impact of new 'scientific' and medical approaches to maternity, sexuality and demography. B. ARMANI Researcher and Writer G. BARRERA Archivist, Direzione Generale per gli Archivi di Stato, Rome, Italy M. R. EBNER Researcher M. GIBSON Professor of History, John Jay College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, USA A. GISSI Lecturer, University of Naples L'Orientale, Italy A. H.
CAESAR Professor of Italian, University of Warwick, UK D. RIZZO Editorial Secretary of Quaderni Storici, Lecturer, University of Naples L'Orientale, Italy M. SEYMOUR Lecturer, Rome Campus of Trinity College, Connecticut, USA A. TAPANINEN Planning Officer, Department of Sociology, University of Helsinki, Finland B. P. F. WANROOIJ Lecturer, Georgetown University, Washington DC, and Syracuse University, New York, USA
Author Biography:
Perry Willson is Senior Lecturer in Italian History at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Her publications include The Clockwork Factory: Women and Work in Fascist Italy (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1993) and Peasant Women and Politics in Fascist Italy: The Massaie Rurali (London, Routledge, 2002).