Publisher's Synopsis
This book aims to be both a cultural history of 20-th century Italy and a case study of cultural modernisation. Focusing on the development of the modern cultural industries such as publishing, cinema and broadcasting, it looks at their impact upon a society which remained predominantly agrarian until around 1950.;Starting with an overview of Italy since 1990, the book traces the effects of industrialization and commercialization on popular culture and the arts. It then deals with the cultural policies of the Fascists and the post-1945 reconstruction. It ends with a discussion of the impact of television in the 1960s and 1970s and on trends towards multimedia conglomerates and deregulated broadcasting in the 1980s.;The author draws on archive and newspaper sources as well as published materials, and questions established assumptions about the relationship between culture and politics, particularly in the Fascist period, and about the forms and meanings of modernization since the Second World War.;The book is written in a way that is accessible to the non-specialist reader. It may also be of interest to students of Italian history and culture, cultural and media studies, European history and politics.
