The Red Brigades: Writing a Biography of a Terrorist Group, 1970-1988.
When and Where
Speakers
Description
The Emilio Goggio Chair in Italian Studies is pleased to invite you to a lecture on a challenging moment of Italian contemporary history and the issues that researchers find when trying to illuminate such eras.
About the Presentation:
This lecture will draw on research published in part in John Foot’s book The Red Brigades. The Terrorists who Brought Italy to its Knees (Bloomsbury, 2025). The lecture will look at the history of this group, the moments in which the Italian state struggled to adopt a strategy to contain their power, and the numerous conspiracy theories which have been used to explain or describe their acts. It will also examine the hinterland which enable their survival for some 18 years. Finally, the presentation will include some reflections on the difficulties and obstacles to writing and researching such a history today.
About the Presenter:
John Foot is Professor of Modern Italian History in the University of Bristol and currently Goggio Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Department of Italian, Spanish, Portuguese & Latin American Studies at the University of Toronto. He has also worked in UCL and in Australia. He has published a number of books relating to contemporary Italian culture and history including studies of Italy’s divided memory, sport (Italian football and cycling), radical psychiatry and Franco Basaglia and fascism as well as a history of post-1945 Italy.
This event is sponsored by the Emilio Goggio Chair in Italian Studies