- Hardcover: 368 pages
- Publisher: Princeton University Press (13 Aug 2007)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0691115400
- ISBN-13: 978-0691115405
- Product Dimensions: 23.9 x 16.4 x 3.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 873,834 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Review
Hailed as 'the Hero of Two Worlds' for his exploits in South America and in Europe, Garibaldi must have become the most famous person on the planet. Alfonso Scirocco has written an old-fashioned biography with a strong narrative, vivid battle scenes, and confident characterization. Scirocco's portrait of Garibaldi, 'an idealist without ideologies,' is attractive and fair...detailed and useful. -- David Gilmour, New York Review of Books
Alfonso Scirocco's Garibaldi is distinctly old-fashioned in approach. But as a traditional biography it is very good, and has the traditional virtues. It is well written and extremely well translated by Allan Cameron, it is up to date on the huge Garibaldi literature, it has plenty of illuminating detail, and it pays a proper regard to his early life and South American experiences. -- Martin Clark, Times Literary Supplement
Alfonso Scirocco's Garibaldi: Citizen of the World...[is a] standard biography...Scirocco reminds us that the man behind the myth generally lived up to his billing in a manner that was matched by few of his counterparts--then or now. -- Dianne N. Labrosse, Montreal Gazette
A fine biography for all drawn to Garibaldi's heroic role in Italy's Risorgimento. -- Gilbert Taylor, Booklist
Garibaldi: Citizen of the World, by Italian historian Alfonso Scirocco, is the traditional bio that tells you who Garibaldi was, what he did, and why he is revered...Scirocco narrates Garibaldi's life with appropriate respect, if not reverence...After finishing Scirocco's account of Garibaldi's life, the great insurgent emerges as traditionally understood: enormously admirable, patriotic, nonmaterialistic, generous, a charismatic leader who typicallly refused honors. -- Carlin Romano, Philadelphia Inquirer
[An] enthralling biography...[Garibaldi's] story remains remarkable and inspiring. -- Allan Massie, Spectator
Since his death in 1882, Giuseppe Garibaldi has been portrayed as a heroic military leader, a man who shaped his own image, and, of course, [w]as the guiding spirit behind the unification of Italy. Scirocco has added to the work of previous scholars with this biography, in which he shows that Garibaldi remained true throughout his life to the ideals of Saint-Simon. Faithfulness to a utopian philosophy did not, however, mean political consistency. . . Scirocco is scholarly and lucid in explaining [Garibaldi's] inconsistencies, and he is equally impressive in showing how Garibaldi navigated his way between his allies (who were at the same time his rivals), especially Camillo Benso (conte di Cavour) and Giuseppe Mazzini. A magisterial work of history. -- S. Bailey, Knox College, for "CHOICE
Scirocco's book . . . is notable for its emphasis on parts of [Garibaldi's] biography that are not generally accented and because it provides the facts of an uncommon life in one convenient source more than do existing, older biographies in English. -- Spencer M. Di Scala, Journal of Military History
Anyone unfamiliar with Garibaldi will find Scirocco's book a useful place to start. -- Mark I. Choate, Historian
Alfonso Scirocco's Garibaldi is distinctly old-fashioned in approach. But as a traditional biography it is very good, and has the traditional virtues. It is well written and extremely well translated by Allan Cameron, it is up to date on the huge Garibaldi literature, it has plenty of illuminating detail, and it pays a proper regard to his early life and South American experiences. -- Martin Clark, Times Literary Supplement
Alfonso Scirocco's Garibaldi: Citizen of the World...[is a] standard biography...Scirocco reminds us that the man behind the myth generally lived up to his billing in a manner that was matched by few of his counterparts--then or now. -- Dianne N. Labrosse, Montreal Gazette
A fine biography for all drawn to Garibaldi's heroic role in Italy's Risorgimento. -- Gilbert Taylor, Booklist
Garibaldi: Citizen of the World, by Italian historian Alfonso Scirocco, is the traditional bio that tells you who Garibaldi was, what he did, and why he is revered...Scirocco narrates Garibaldi's life with appropriate respect, if not reverence...After finishing Scirocco's account of Garibaldi's life, the great insurgent emerges as traditionally understood: enormously admirable, patriotic, nonmaterialistic, generous, a charismatic leader who typicallly refused honors. -- Carlin Romano, Philadelphia Inquirer
[An] enthralling biography...[Garibaldi's] story remains remarkable and inspiring. -- Allan Massie, Spectator
Since his death in 1882, Giuseppe Garibaldi has been portrayed as a heroic military leader, a man who shaped his own image, and, of course, [w]as the guiding spirit behind the unification of Italy. Scirocco has added to the work of previous scholars with this biography, in which he shows that Garibaldi remained true throughout his life to the ideals of Saint-Simon. Faithfulness to a utopian philosophy did not, however, mean political consistency. . . Scirocco is scholarly and lucid in explaining [Garibaldi's] inconsistencies, and he is equally impressive in showing how Garibaldi navigated his way between his allies (who were at the same time his rivals), especially Camillo Benso (conte di Cavour) and Giuseppe Mazzini. A magisterial work of history. -- S. Bailey, Knox College, for "CHOICE
Scirocco's book . . . is notable for its emphasis on parts of [Garibaldi's] biography that are not generally accented and because it provides the facts of an uncommon life in one convenient source more than do existing, older biographies in English. -- Spencer M. Di Scala, Journal of Military History
Anyone unfamiliar with Garibaldi will find Scirocco's book a useful place to start. -- Mark I. Choate, Historian
Product Description
What adventure novelist could have invented the life of Giuseppe Garibaldi? The revolutionary, soldier, politician, and greatest figure in the fight for Italian unification, Garibaldi (1807-1882) brought off almost as many dramatic exploits in the Americas as he did in Europe, becoming an international freedom fighter, earning the title of the "hero of two worlds," and making himself perhaps the most famous and beloved man of his century. Alfonso Scirocco's Garibaldi is the most up-to-date, authoritative, comprehensive, and convincing biography of Garibaldi yet written. In vivid narrative style and unprecedented detail, and drawing on many new sources that shed fresh light on important events, Scirocco tells the full story of Garibaldi's fascinating public and private life, separating its myth-like reality from the outright myths that have surrounded Garibaldi since his own day.
Scirocco tells how Garibaldi devoted his energies to the liberation of Italians and other oppressed peoples. Sentenced to death for his role in an abortive Genoese insurrection in 1834, Garibaldi fled to South America, where he joined two successive fights for independence--Rio Grande do Sul's against Brazil and Uruguay's against Argentina. He returned to Italy in 1848 to again fight for Italian independence, leading seven more campaigns, including the spectacular capture of Sicily. During the American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln even offered to make him a general in the Union army.
Presenting Garibaldi as a complex and even contradictory figure, Scirocco shows us the pacifist who spent much of his life fighting; the nationalist who advocated European unification; the republican who served a king; and the man who, although compared by contemporaries to Aeneas and Odysseus, refused honors and wealth and spent his last years as a farmer.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Garibaldi made Italy, but found difficulty in making the Italians!
So the quote goes, as he said: "I succeeded in making Italy, now let's make the Italians."
It surely proved harder, and even now the making goes on...
In an elegant and captivating style, Professor Scirocco recounts a life that a novelist would have found difficult to invent, given the extraordinary adventures of this Italian patriot, who navigated the world and had incredibles exploits in the two halves of the emisphere. Garibaldi possessed a latent force and feeling all the more impressive from the contrast it afforded to the voluble and dramatic expression of his countrymen. It is also interesting that one of the keys to his great achievements lay in his practical training as a merchant seaman and his voyages all over the world. This experience gave him a disciplined approach to his objectives which was quite lacking in the purely theoretical revolutionaries. On the other hand, there were occasions when his lack of political talent was to make his military skill of no avail.
Thus, the Italians are still in the making, as the last century of Italian Politics has clearly shown.
The author presents a lucid and vivid portrait of this "hero of two worlds", drawing on many previously unpublished sources and important details, and offering the reader a fascinating biography of the private and public Garibaldi: the international freedom fighter par excellence, and the mastermind of the Risorgimento and the Unification of Italy (cf. also The Italian Risorgimento (Seminar Studies In History)).
There have been wiser politicians and greater generals than Giuseppe Garibaldi, but none has been more lovable or more loved. Scirocco makes sure we understand that.
So the quote goes, as he said: "I succeeded in making Italy, now let's make the Italians."
It surely proved harder, and even now the making goes on...
In an elegant and captivating style, Professor Scirocco recounts a life that a novelist would have found difficult to invent, given the extraordinary adventures of this Italian patriot, who navigated the world and had incredibles exploits in the two halves of the emisphere. Garibaldi possessed a latent force and feeling all the more impressive from the contrast it afforded to the voluble and dramatic expression of his countrymen. It is also interesting that one of the keys to his great achievements lay in his practical training as a merchant seaman and his voyages all over the world. This experience gave him a disciplined approach to his objectives which was quite lacking in the purely theoretical revolutionaries. On the other hand, there were occasions when his lack of political talent was to make his military skill of no avail.
Thus, the Italians are still in the making, as the last century of Italian Politics has clearly shown.
The author presents a lucid and vivid portrait of this "hero of two worlds", drawing on many previously unpublished sources and important details, and offering the reader a fascinating biography of the private and public Garibaldi: the international freedom fighter par excellence, and the mastermind of the Risorgimento and the Unification of Italy (cf. also The Italian Risorgimento (Seminar Studies In History)).
There have been wiser politicians and greater generals than Giuseppe Garibaldi, but none has been more lovable or more loved. Scirocco makes sure we understand that.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I found this biography rather dull considering the subject matter, it might well have been the translation but what should have been a fascinating story was flattened and we did not get the measure of the man.
3 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Excellent biography.Cuts down on detail just like its subject.
A great portrait of a great man.
A great portrait of a great man.
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