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The Shortest History of Italy
Ross King

The Shortest History of Italy

The calendar. The Senate. The university. The piano, the heliocentric model, and the pizzeria. It’s hard to imagine a world without Italian influence―and easy to assume that inventions like these could only come from a strong, stable peninsula, sure of its place in the world. In this breakneck history, bestselling author Ross King dismantles this assumption, uncovering the story of a land rife with inner uncertainty even as its influence spread.

As the Italian tale unfolds, prosperity and power fluctuate like the elevation in the Dolomites. If Rome’s seven hills could talk, they might speak of the glorious time of Trajan―or bemoan the era of conquest and the Bubonic Plague that decimated Rome’s population. Episodes of wealth like the First Triumvirate and the time of the Medicis are given fresh life alongside descriptions the Middle Ages, the early days of Venice, the invasion of Napoleon, and the long struggle for unification.

With illustrations and maps to reinforce key details, King paints a colorful, fascinating portrait of a country that remains compelling not just to tens of millions of Italian Americans, but to the millions of Americans who visit Italy every year.

Book Details:

  • Author: Ross King
  • Published Year: 2024
  • Rights Sold
    • UK: Old Street Publishing
    • US: The Experiment
    • Russia: Azbooka-Atticus
    • Italy: Hoepli
    • Holland: De Bezige Bij
    • Denmark: Svane & Bilgrav
Ross King

Ross King

Ross King is the bestselling author of books on Italian, French and Canadian art and history. Among his books are Brunelleschi’s Dome (2000), Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling (2002), The Judgment of Paris (Governor General’s Award, 2006), Leonardo and The Last Supper (Governor General’s Award, 2012), and Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies (Charles Taylor Prize, 2017). He has also published two novels (Domino and Ex-Libris), a biography of Niccolò Machiavelli, an...
More about Ross King

Book Reviews

  • "History exerts a force [in Italy] that is multifaceted and ambiguous, especially to the outsider--but The Shortest History of Italy helps to render the country coherent."
    The Saturday Paper (Australia)
  • "Known for his impeccable research and engaging style, King is the perfect Virgil to guide us from The Aeneid to COVID-19 in this densely packed volume of tantalizing details. . . . King has a keen eye for the provocative anecdote, ranging from the debauchery of the emperors to papal history and the origins of the Mafia. . . . Each page brims with Bill Bryson-like trivia that is sure to delight.."
    Booklist, starred review
  • "A remarkably readable whirlwind tour of Italian history over the millennia, replete with conquerors, emperors, slaves, popes, assorted invaders, and filled with juicy historical nuggets. There's nothing quite like it."
    David Kertzer, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Pope and Mussolini and The Pope at War
  • "A rollicking introduction to the history of a country that, until barely 150 years ago, was not one. Vibrant, admirably clear, and often wryly amusing, Ross King's narrative benefits again and again from his eye for the telling detail--a splendid achievement."
    John Hooper, author of The Italians and Italy correspondent for The Economist
  • "Terrific . . . a lucid, riveting history of a country that is both exquisitely old and painfully young at the same time."
    Sarah Dunant, bestselling author of In the Name of the Family
  • "Jump into the Alfa Romeo and hold tight as Ross King speeds through Italian history with this effervescent and entertaining guide to the peninsula’s past."
    Catherine Fletcher, author of The Beauty and the Terror and The Black Prince of Florence
  • "Few have as much insight into the history of Italy as the author of Brunelleschi’s Dome, and here Ross King offers a masterful and perceptive account of Italian virtues―and sins―from the Romans to Berlusconi, as well as the country’s inimitable art and architecture. An ideal handbook for anyone who loves Italy and wants to dig a little deeper into the past of what Dante called il bel paese, or as Ross King puts it, Italy’s history of ‘resilience and rebirth."
    Richard Owen, author of DH Lawrence in Italy, Hemingway in Italy, and Chaucer’s Italy