The Life of Mazzini

Giuseppe Mazzini was the architect of modern Italian nationalism, a revolutionary who believed nations had souls and citizens possessed divine duties. This early 20th century biography traces his transformation from a literary young man in Genoa into the exiled prophet of Italian unification, revealing how one person's ideas can literally create a country. Bolton King follows Mazzini through his formation among the Carbonari secret societies, his decades of exile in London and elsewhere, and the development of his revolutionary philosophy that would inspire movements across Europe. The book illuminates both the man and his methods, the secret societies and pamphlets, the unwavering conviction that a unified Italy was not merely possible but inevitable. Mazzini's story is ultimately one of stubborn hope in the face of failure, a man who spent nearly forty years in exile yet remained the spiritual center of the Risorgimento until the kingdom he imagined finally came to pass.