Briganti a scuola

The essay questions how the subject of the process of Italian unification and banditry is addressed in the teaching of history. What emerges is a poor reception of the renewal of studies and of the historiographical debate, in the face of a revival of the identification of banditry with the class struggle, of its close connection with the state property issue, and of the identification of the brigand with the social hero. On the other hand, echoes of the neo-Bourbon vulgate do not seem to resonate in the classrooms. Nonetheless, this sort of resilience of the social reading of the phenomenon leads young people to a misunderstanding of its scope, which has as a direct consequence, among other things, an almost spontaneous mechanism of actualization.

Keywords: School manuals; History education; Brigandage.