Cavour

An important study of the Risorgimento. devoted to seven crucial months in 1860.

Cavour was perhaps the key figure in the process of Italian unification. As prime minister of Piedmont, still reeling from military humiliation by Austria, he turned his backward and insignificant home state into the nucleus of the new Italy by his astute manipulation of the European great powers, becoming the united country's first prime minister in the year of his death, 1861. Harry Hearder's incisive study, setting Cavour and the Risorgimento in the full context of international European power-politics, reveals a ruthless, egocentric and far from balanced man - but a politician of genius.

"Cavour" by Evelyn Lilian Hazeldine Carrington contessa Martinengo-Cesaresco was initially written in Italian but was later translated for international audiences. The high-society writer weaves a tale suitable both for people who lived in that world as well as for those readers who can only dream about the decadence of the late 19th century.

In the 19th century, both Italy and the US were young countries pursuing liberal nationalism even as unity was threatened by a recalcitrant southern population. This nuanced analysis of abolitionism and Italian democratic nationalism, Lincoln and Cavour, and the nation's two civil wars provides powerful new insights into their histories.