The Pope’s Legion

The Pope’s Legion: The Multinational Fighting Force that Defended the Vatican
Charles A. Coulombe
(Palgrave Macmillan)

The story of the Papal Zouaves, a band of 20,000 Catholics, from France, Belgium, Spain, Ireland and Austria, who were summoned by the Pope in the 19th century to defend the Vatican City from attack, in the midst of the Italian Wars of the Risorgimento.

The Artist, the Philosopher and the Warrior

Paul Strathern (Jonathan Cape)

An account of Leonardo da Vinci, Niccolo Machiavelli and Cesare Borgia’s travels in the Italian Romagna during the autumn of 1502 in the military campaign led by Borgia in an attempt to carve out his personal princedom.

Risorgimento: The History of Italy from Napoleon to the Nation State

Lucy Riall
Palgrave Macmillan

An account of the controversial and wide-ranging transformations that followed the Risorgimento, which offers an insight into the meaning and appeal of Italian nationalism and a new interpretation of the unification of Italy.

The Fall of Mussolini, Philip Morgan (Oxford University Press)

An account of Mussolini’s fall from power, which reveals the causes and consequences of the event and how the Italians’ experiences of the country at war distanced them from the fascist regime.