Eroi maschili, virilità e forme della guerra

This article looks at the relationship between militarism, masculinity and nationalism in the Italian Risorgimento. War is not usually associated with the idea of the Italian nation, and Italy has been left out of recent comparative accounts of war and masculinity by writers such as George Mosse and Karen Hagemann. Instead, I show that a military ideal did emerge and gain influence in Italy during the 'Risorgimento', and this military ideal used a gendered language. It was linked to the political conflicts of post-Napoleonic Italy and to the construction and dissemination of a radical nationalist discourse which was developed in opposition to existing governments. Focusing above all on the image of the volunteer in the wars of the Risorgimento, I argue that Italy was a different case from either Germany and France. Moreover, an analysis of Risorgimento Italy suggests shortcomings in the current approach, which focuses only on the construction of official nationalist discourse, and only on its authoritarian outcomes