Just finished Montanelli's history of Italy
After at least three years of intense reading, I have finally completed Indro Montanelli's History of Italy. I now want to go back and reread it from the beginning and pick out history's lessons and interesting facts.
Indro Montanelli is one of Italy's most accomplished journalists of the twentieth century. His views appear to lean towards the right, but his account of history seems fairly impartial, at least for history prior to World War I. His earlier writings are a little more opinionated and contain comments that today appear to be generalizations that never heard of political correctness: later in his life he seems to realize that certain things are better left unsaid.
Indro's stated objective is to bring Italian history to the masses in plain terms. That is something that I think he accomplished well and that was greatly needed. Growing up I hated Italian textbooks with a passion because they were pompously written. Montanelli's history of Italy is easy to understand and entertaining. Come back later for the first picks from the history of Greece, whose philosophy inspired Italian thought and culture.