Storia della diplomazia e International Relations Studies fra pre- e post- moderno
Diplomatic history and International Relations Studies are increasingly crossing their paths: the transformation of contemporary diplomacy in a globalised world has pushed the IR towards a re-reading of medieval practices and mod- els that could provide them with examples and case-stud- ies. Historians could fo their part, by revising the traditional grand narrative on the birth of modern diplomacy, derive from the IR useful categories and concepts. This essay re- views the results of such crossings. On the one hand, the need to de ne a «New Diplomacy» has surfaced in historical studies and in the workings of contemporary professionals and theorists; on the other hand, a deeper analysis of both pre- modern and the modern multiple diplomacy reveals interesting similarities while suggesting new theoretical ap- proaches. This paper analyzes the conceptual framework and presents the latest results of research on diplomacy in both the late medieval and the modern ages. It then com- pares methods of analysis and interpretations and offers a critical perspective on the need and usefulness of models.
Parole chiave: Diplomazia; Italia tardomedievale; International Relations Studies; globalizzazione
Keywords: Diplomacy; late medieval Italy; International Relations Studies; globalisation
La città oltre la nazione. Un urban turn per la storia contemporanea?
This article analyzes the growing interconnection between urban history and global history in the last two dec- ades. Within the new postnational approach to the history of the cities, two main trends have been emerging. On the one hand, especially outside Europe, some scholars have been trying to develop a kind of urban history based on the re- fusal of the Western narrative of modernization and focused on the experience of city-dwellers. On the other, world his- torians have been pointing out the role of the cities in the development of the global networks which have been ex- panding over the last two centuries. Both these approaches dissolve national borders, create new spaces, and reclaim a new de nition of “urban”. What could be the effects of this new urban history in the ongoing construction of a transna- tional contemporary history? The “urban” issue appears as a crucial challenge for experimenting a link between material reality, political space, and changing historical ideas about citizens, beyond Euro-centric perspectives.
Parole chiave: Storia urbana; Storia transnaziona- le; Città globali; Modernizzazione urbana
Keywords: Urban History; Transnational History; Global Cities; Urban Modernization
Frammenti di un passato intimo: il Novecento salvato dagli scrittori
The article considers the relationship between history and literature, through the analysis of a strand of contem- porary literature, mostly European, characterized by the desire of authors to measure themselves with the history and memory of the twentieth century. It is non- ction that rejects the use of invention, unlike the classic genre of the historical novel. Moving at the intersection of history, tes- timony and memory, this literature aims on the one hand to reconstruct the truth of facts and individual stories that would otherwise remain unknown, “mimicking” the work of the historian; on the other, it aims to investigate the complicated work of memory through time. Some com- mon elements occur in the different authors examined: the centrality of the family as the protagonist of the narrative; the strong autobiographical involvement of writers who feel heirs of a family history; the use of oral testimonies and traces left by the protagonists as privileged mode of access to the past; a particular sensitivity for the victims of history, conceived as a succession of violence and grief; a poetic of the “fragment” that enhances the gaps of the past, what is likely to be lost and falling into oblivion. This way of representing the past - which is both a form and a con- tent - is con gured as a master narrative that also involves a part of contemporary historiography. Many historians today “become writers”: they give up argumentation and debate, enhance the emotional and ethical aspects of their work over the cognitive ones, expunge a number of aspects of reality (economics, demography, climate ...) in favor of a narrative that is centered on the values of individual life and family memory.
Parole chiave: Storia nella letteratura; Memoria; Narrativa; XX secolo
Keywords: History in Literature; Memory; Narra- tive; 20th Century
«Peace» or not? Powers and communities in late medieval Japan
This article surveys recent research trends in Japanese medieval history prevalent since the 1980’s, which followed from the epoch-making book by Hisashi Fujiki, The Peace Order of Toyotomi and Sengoku Society, and the debates surrounding it. Fujiki’s work, which considered Toyoto- mi’s regime as a political authority based on a peace policy rather than an oppressive dictatorship under which Japan was uni ed by military forces, drastically revised the un- derstanding of the signi cance of Japanese uni cation in 1590. A series of debates emerged from it. The points of discussion were the very existence of the Peace Order as law, the political and military process of Toyotomi’s uni - cation in terms of regional and local contests, and the peace and con icts pursued by local actors such as provincial lords or village communities in the boundary zones situat- ed between daimyo dominions. Thus, The Peace Order of Toyotomi and Sengoku Society, which prompted vigorous debates and numerous case studies conducted from new perspectives, contributed enormously to renewing our un- derstanding of Japanese history.
Parole chiave: Storia giapponese medie- vale; Pace e conflitti medievali; Toyotomi Hideyoshi; Ordine di pace di Toyotomi
Keywords: Japanese medieval history; medieval peace and conflicts; Toyotomi Hideyoshi; The peace order of Toyotomi