Italian Neofascism

During the Cold War Italy witnessed the existence of an anomalous version of a civil conflict, defined as a 'creeping'or a 'low-intensity'civil war. Political violence escalated, including bomb attacks against civilians, starting with a massacre in Milan, on 12 December 1969, and culminating with the massacre in Bologna, on 2 August 1980. Making use of the literature on national reconciliation and narrative psychology theory, this book examines the fight over the 'judicial'and the 'historical'truth in Italy today, through a contrasting analysis of judicial findings and the 'narratives of victimhood'prevalent among representatives of both the post- and the neo-fascist right.

Anna Cento Bull is Professor of Italian History and Politics at the University of Bath. Her publications include Social Identities and Political Cultures in Italy (Oxford: Berghahn, 2000); The Lega Nord and The Northern Question in Italian Politics (London: Palgrave, 2001) (with M. Gilbert) and Speaking Out and Silencing: Culture, Society and Politics in Italy in the 1970s. (Legenda: Oxford, 2005) (edited jointly with A. Giorgio).