Gaetano Salvemini

Salvemini, Gaetano 

Born Sept. 18, 1873, in Molfetta, Bari; died Sept. 6, 1957, in Sorrento. Italian political figure, historian, and publicist. From 1902 to 1925 history professor at the universities of Messina, Pisa, and Florence.

Salvemini joined the socialist movement in 1893. However, he did not accept the directives of the socialist party’s reformist leadership on several questions, especially the Southern Question. Unlike the reformists, who to all intents and purposes ignored the interests of the southern peasantry, he called for a radical solution to the problem of the south. Salvemini left the socialist party in 1911. From the early 20th century he was a leader of the democratic wing of the Meridionals (from the Italian meridionale, or “southern”), who advocated the economic modernization and rebirth of the south. From 1919 to 1921 he was a deputy to parliament.

Salvemini resolutely opposed Fascism; for this reason he was arrested and convicted. In 1925 he emigrated to France, where he emerged as a leader of the anti-Fascist Justice and Liberty (Giustizia e Libertà) movement. He lived in the United States from 1934 to 1948 and taught at Harvard University. In 1949, Salvemini returned to his homeland and became head of the history faculty at the University of Florence.

WORKS

Magnati e popolani in Firenze dal 1280 al 1295. [Turin] 1960.
La rivoluzione francese. Milan, 1905.
La questione dell’Adriatico, 2nd ed. Rome, 1919. (With C. Maranelli.)
Il partito e la questione romana. Florence, 1922.
The Fascist Dictatorship in Italy. New York, 1967.
La Terreur fasciste, 4th ed. Paris, 1930.
Under the Axe of Fascism. London, 1936.
Prelude to World War II. London, 1953.
Scritti sulla questione meridionale, 2nd ed. Turin, 1958.
Memorie di un fuoruscito. Milan [1960]