Gender, Family and Sexuality: The Private Sphere in Italy, 1860-1945

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

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2. Introduction: Gender and the Private Sphere in Liberal and Fascist Italy

   • Perry Willson

   Pages 1-19

3. Marriage on Trial: Adultery in Nineteenth-Century Rome

   • Domenico Rizzo

   Pages 20-36

4. Till Death Do Them Part? The Church-State Struggle over Marriage and Divorce, 1860–1914

   • Mark Seymour

   Pages 37-50

5. Motherhood through the Wheel: The Care of Foundlings in Late Nineteenth-Century Naples

   • Anna-Maria Tapaninen

   Pages 51-70

6. Family, Marriage and Inheritance Practices of a Jewish Elite in the Age of Emancipation

   • Barbara Armani

   Pages 71-88

7. Labelling Women Deviant: Heterosexual Women, Prostitutes and Lesbians in Early Criminological Discourse

   • Mary Gibson

   Pages 89-104

8. Women and the Public/Private Divide: The Salotto, Home and Theatre in Late Nineteenth-Century Italy

   • Ann Hallamore Caesar

   Pages 105-121

9. Between Tradition and Profession: Italian Midwives during the Fascist Period

   • Alessandra Gissi

   Pages 122-138

10. The Persecution of Homosexual Men under Fascism

    • Michael R. Ebner

    Pages 139-156

11. Sex, Citizenship and the State: The Construction of the Public and Private Spheres in Colonial Eritrea

    • Giulia Barrera

    Pages 157-172

12. The History of Sexuality in Italy (1860–1945)

    • Bruno P. F. Wanrooij

    Pages 173-191

13. Back Matter

    Pages 193-198

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This lively collection of essays presents a range of innovative research on the history of the private sphere in Liberal and Fascist Italy, with a particular focus on sexuality, gender and race - all aspects which have received scarce attention in much of the existing historiography. It includes articles on foundlings and their mothers, the role of midwives, changing attitudes to sexuality, adultery trials, the Fascist persecution of homosexuals, debates about divorce and (going beyond Italy to its empire) the treatment of mixed race children and their mothers in Eritrea. Key themes of this collection include the contrasting attitudes of the Liberal and Fascist governments to the role of the state in the private sphere, the influence of the Church and the impact of new 'scientific' and medical approaches to maternity, sexuality and demography.

• attention
• empire
• fascism
• gender
• historiography
• history
• Judaism
• women

• University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

  Perry Willson

B. ARMANI Researcher and Writer G. BARRERA Archivist, Direzione Generale per gli Archivi di Stato, Rome, Italy M. R. EBNER Researcher M. GIBSON Professor of History, John Jay College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, USA A. GISSI Lecturer, University of Naples L'Orientale, Italy A. H. CAESAR Professor of Italian, University of Warwick, UK D. RIZZO Editorial Secretary of Quaderni Storici, Lecturer, University of Naples L'Orientale, Italy M. SEYMOUR Lecturer, Rome Campus of Trinity College, Connecticut, USA A. TAPANINEN Planning Officer, Department of Sociology, University of Helsinki, Finland B. P. F. WANROOIJ Lecturer, Georgetown University, Washington DC, and Syracuse University, New York, USA

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