History

In the now distant past extraordinary women and men worked to assert ideas and dreams in places where new times were taking shape. Re-reading their lives Ernesto Galli della Loggia brings to light decisive and neglected figures and episodes of the Italian history. As in the case of the Bandiera brothers and Don Tazzoli, subtracted from the "mothballs of conventional patriotism" to retrace that hidden Risorgimento "little or no liberal, much less democratic”.

By analyzing and putting into perspective the history of ‘the West’, this book aims to understand what kind of future can we expect for it (and us all). The ‘West’ in this context means all ‘westernized’ countries in our modern world, countries that have adopted Western lifestyles, ideas and set of rules, from a capitalist economy to the rule of law. Schiavone’s frame of reference is a global one, not focusing specifically on one country or another, but instead looking at the set of subjects, forces, and trends that allow us to define the macro-horizons of what we can expect.

The divergence in religious ideas and energies between the different Christian Churches of the age of the Protestant Reformation and the Council of Trent has often been a dominant theme in Adriano Prosperi’s consequential research.

As Ginzburg says in the Preface: «Those browsing through this book will perhaps be struck by the variety of themes addressed. Some will wonder if there are recurring elements behind such heterogeneity. I will try to suggest one, following in the tangle of essays the trace proposed by the volume’s title. “The letter kills, the spirit gives life,” said Paul of Tarsus in his Second Letter to the Corinthians (3:6), contrasting the Jewish law into which he was born with the new faith of which he was the founder. “Kills,” “gives life” are metaphors, which are not to be taken literally.

Sometimes you feel like cursing it, like the devil that might have spawned it; other times you want to hold it dear, like a cherished travel companion who instills in the threshold of our consciousness the agony and bewilderment we feel at the idea of nothingness.

What are these ‘vanities of vanities’ of which Qohelet speaks supposed to be? Is this a message of desperation or an appeal to Lady Liberty?