About the book

This volume represents one of the most comprehensive analyses of contemporary Italy. It is a provocative and an innovative collection of essays that aims to highlight the current 'crisis' of the country through an analysis of several different 'dark shadows' of contemporary Italian society.

From the new emerging mafias to the predicaments of the political system, from the ongoing presence of Fascism to the failed reconciliation of the years of terrorism, from the missed opportunity of the EU funding to the increasing regional economic gap: these are only a few of the critical issues that affect the country of la dolce vita and that have been here analyzed in an unprecedented effort. Italy already had a long history of 'unsolved' issues, several chronic problems and contradictions that have been ignored for a very long time, during which they have assumed dramatic proportions and gravity. The peninsula has henceforth become the 'Sick Man of Europe', a country facing a veritable decline also caused by apparent incapacity and difficulties of the ruling economic, political and social elites.