Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Beyond the Cold War: Tempo Presente in Italy

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Campaigning Culture and the Global Cold War

Abstract

This chapter explores Italian intellectuals’ negotiations to transform and adapt the transnational dimension of the cultural Cold War to local ambitions and needs. In particular, it focuses on the relationship between the two editors, Ignazio Silone and Nicola Chiaromonte. Both were refugees from Fascist Italy, and both, for different reasons, were strongly anti-communist. In 1956, Silone and Chiaromonte founded Tempo Presente, supported by CCF funding. The chapter analyses the journal’s position in the Italian cultural-political scene, its marginalisation within the Italian literary establishment, and why it was ineffective in establishing a non-Communist Left cultural hegemony.

*These sections are written by Chiara Morbi.

**These sections are written by Paola Carlucci.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 99.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    See R. Pertici, ‘Il vario anticomunismo italiano (1936–1960). Lineamenti di una storia’, in E. Galli della Loggia and L. Di Nucci (eds.) Due nazioni. Legittimazione e delegittimazione nella storia dell’Italia contemporanea (Bologna: Il Mulino, 2003), pp. 263–334.

  2. 2.

    T. Risse-Kappen, ‘Ideas do not Float Freely: Transnational Coalitions, Domestic Structures, and the End of the Cold War’, International Organization 48 (1994), pp. 208–212.

  3. 3.

    I. Silone, ‘Ideologie e realtà sociale,’ Tempo Presente 1/1 (1956), p. 4.

  4. 4.

    S. Pugliese, Bitter Spring (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2009), p. 222.

  5. 5.

    I. Silone, Emergency Exit (London: Gollancz, 1969), p. 102.

  6. 6.

    See I. Silone, Nicola Chiaromonte, in I. Silone, Romanzi e Saggi, Vol. II, ed. B. Falcetto (Milano: Mondadori 1998), p. 1363; Pugliese, Bitter Spring, pp. 239–242; 249–50.

  7. 7.

    Chiaromonte to Silone, 20 October [1935], Nicola Chiaromonte Papers, Series I: Correspondence, Box 4, Folder 131, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University (hereafter NCP).

  8. 8.

    On this controversial episode, see D. Biocca and M. Canali, L’informatore: Silone, i comunisti e la polizia (Milano-Trento: Luni 2000); G. Tamburrano, Processo a Silone. La disavventura di un povero cristiano (Manduria: Lacaita 2001).

  9. 9.

    G. Bianco, Nicola Chiaromonte e il tempo della malafede (Manduria: Lacaita, 1999).

  10. 10.

    Chiaromonte to Silone, 30 January 1936, Series I: Correspondence, Box 4, Folder 131, NCP.

  11. 11.

    ‘Intervista con Ignazio Silone’ [1939], Silone, Romanzi, Vol. I, p. 1298.

  12. 12.

    I. Silone, La Scuola dei dittatori [1939], in Silone, Romanzi, I, pp. 1019–1228: 1217–1228.

  13. 13.

    N. Chiaromonte, ‘La situazione di massa e i valori nobili’, Tempo Presente, 1/1 (April 1956), pp. 23–36; P. Carlucci, ‘Intellettuali nel Novecento: il confronto di Nicola Chiaromonte con Hannah Arendt’, Ricerche di Storia Politica 14 (April 2011), pp. 3–28.

  14. 14.

    ‘Editorial’, Tempo Presente, 1/1 (April 1956), p. 1.

  15. 15.

    ‘AHR Conversation: On Transnational History’, American Historical Review 111 (December 2006), pp. 1441–1464: 1445.

  16. 16.

    Croce’s liberalism was based on the idea that liberty was the ability of individuals to participate in the State. He was less concerned with the limits of the State in order to preserve individual liberty. See D.D. Roberts, Benedetto Croce and the Uses of Historicism (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press 1987), pp. 210–265.

  17. 17.

    N. Chiaromonte, ‘Viaggi in Cina’, Tempo Presente 1 (July 1956), pp. 347–352: 350.

  18. 18.

    N. Bobbio, Autobiografia, ed. A. Papuzzi (Rome-Bari: Laterza 1997), p. 116.

  19. 19.

    ‘Cattolici e non cattolici: risposta al ‘Mulino’’, Tempo Presente 3 (February 1958), pp. 140–143; ‘Discussione con ‘Tempo Presente’’, Il Mulino 6 (November 1957), pp. 747–766.

  20. 20.

    Nicola Chiaromonte was the theatre critic for Il Mondo and was one of Pannunzio’s personal friends. See A. Cardini, Tempi di ferro. ‘Il Mondo’ e l’Italia del dopoguerra (Bologna: Il Mulino 1992).

  21. 21.

    See esp. A. Garosci, ‘Kruscev e il silenzio degli intellettuali’, Tempo Presente 1 (October 1956).

  22. 22.

    Silone to Chiaromonte, 11 October 1955, Ignazio Silone Papers, Serie I: Corrispondenza generale, Box 3: 1955–1961, Fondazione Turati, Firenze (hereafter ISP).

  23. 23.

    Chiaromonte to Silone, 11 October 1955, Series I: Correspondence, Box 4, Folder 133, NCP. This included essays from the New Yorker (e.g. Dwight Macdonald’s famous critique of the Ford Foundation, ‘I filantropoidi’, Tempo Presente 1 (October 1956), pp. 446–468), Dissent, and The New York Review of Books.

  24. 24.

    Silone to the AILC board of directors, 9 September 1955, Box C AG 39, Folder 1008, Istituto Piemontese per la Storia della Resistenza e della Società contemporanea (ISTORETO), Fondo Aldo Garosci, Turin.

  25. 25.

    R. Aron, Mémoires (Paris: Julliard 1983), pp. 237–238.

  26. 26.

    Chiaromonte to McCarthy, 29 March 1967, Mary McCarthy Papers, Box 187, Folder 12, Vassar College Libraries, Poughkeepsie NY (hereafter MMP).

  27. 27.

    In November 1967, the ‘approximate circulation figures’ of the CCF journals were as follows: Der Monat: print run 17,000 and total sales (including subscriptions) 13,600; Preuves 5900/2800; Survey 4750/3050; Tempo Presente 3000/2600, anonymous note, Series XIII: Associazione per la libertà della Cultura, Box 32, Folder 34, ISP.

  28. 28.

    Chiaromonte to Michael Josselson, 1 April 1969, Michael Josselson Papers, Box 25, Folder 3, Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin (hereafter MJP).

  29. 29.

    P. Carlucci, ‘Tempo Presente (1956–1968) e il Congress for Cultural Freedom: alcuni appunti per la storia di una rivista’, in D. Menozzi, M. Moretti, and R. Pertici (eds.), Culture e libertà. Studi di storia in onore di Roberto Vivarelli (Pisa: Edizioni della Normale 2006), pp. 453–478; see also Box 25, Folders 2–3, MJP.

  30. 30.

    Silone to Chiaromonte, 12 March 1956, Series I: Corrispondenza generale, Box 3 (1955–1961), ISP.

  31. 31.

    Chiaromonte to Silone, 5 December 1957 and 7 December 1957, Series I Correspondence, Box 4, Folder 133, NCP.

  32. 32.

    Chiaromonte to Silone, 29 December 1963, Series I Correspondence, Box 4, Folder 134, NCP; Silone to Chiaromonte, 10 January 1964, Series I Correspondence, Box 3, Folder 77, NCP.

  33. 33.

    Silone to Josselson, 11 May 1964, Box 25, Folder 2, MJP.

  34. 34.

    See Chiaromonte to Josselson, 9 December 1964, Box 25, Folder 3, MJP. To meet the CCF’s request, Chiaromonte negotiated an agreement with Bompiani’s publishing house. Bompiani tried to improve Tempo Presente sales and its advertising campaign, but the agreement lasted less than two years and ended in 1966.

  35. 35.

    Silone to Chiaromonte, 12 March 1956, Series I: Corrispondenza generale, Box 3 (1955–1961), ISP.

  36. 36.

    See S. Soave, Senza tradirsi senza tradire. Silone e Tasca dal comunismo al socialismo Cristiano (1900–1940) (Turin: Aragno 2005).

  37. 37.

    Chiaromonte to Mary McCarthy, 14 February 1966 and 21 March 1966, Box 187, Folder 12, MMP.

  38. 38.

    See Chiaromonte to Silone, 7 December 1957, Series I Correspondence, Box 4, Folder 133, NCP.

  39. 39.

    Chiaromonte to Silone, 11 October 1955, Series I Correspondence, Box 4, Folder 133, NCP; Silone to Chiaromonte 11 October 1955 and 12 March 1956, Series I: Corrispondenza generale, Box 3 (1955–1961), ISP.

  40. 40.

    Tempo Presente 1/1 (April 1956), pp. 1–2: 1.

  41. 41.

    Silone to Chiaromonte, 12 March 1956, Series I: Corrispondenza generale, Box 3 (1955–1961), ISP.

  42. 42.

    G. Duse, C. Accardi, and A. Sanfilippo, ‘Perché ce ne siamo andati’, Tempo Presente 3 (December 1958), pp. 951–958.

  43. 43.

    Esp. see I. Silone, ‘Agenda. Cipro come Atollo’, Tempo Presente 1 (November 1956), pp. 601–602; W. Young, ‘Lettera da Londra’, Tempo Presente 1 (December 1956), pp. 728–731.

  44. 44.

    I. Silone, ‘Agenda. Gli Apparati e la democrazia’, Tempo Presente 2 (May 1957), pp. 363–368; ‘Apparati di partito e democrazia. Un dibattito a Rodi’, Tempo Presente 3 (November 1958), pp. 884–886; H. Arendt, ‘Che cos’è l’autorità’, Tempo Presente 2 (July 1957), pp. 531–546.

  45. 45.

    ‘Tre domande agli intellettuali’, Tempo Presente 1 (December 1956), pp. 690–709 and 2 (January 1957), pp. 13–25; N. Chiaromonte, ‘Commento all’inchiesta “Tre domande agli intellettuali”’, Tempo Presente 2 (February 1957), pp. 99–103.

  46. 46.

    I. Anissimov and I. Silone ‘Un dialogo difficile: dal disgelo al neo-stalinismo. La lettera di Anissimov. La replica di Silone’, Tempo Presente 2 (February 1957), pp. 85–98; ‘Dialogo impossibile. La lettera di Anissimov. La risposta di Silone’, Tempo Presente 2 (April 1957), pp. 275–276.

  47. 47.

    See N. Chiaromonte, ‘La parola di Pasternak’, Tempo Presente 2 (December 1957), pp. 905–909; L. Abel, N. Chiaromonte, and A. Negri, ‘Il “Dottor Zivago” e la sensibilità moderna’, Tempo Presente 3 (December 1958), pp. 967–985.

  48. 48.

    I. Silone, ‘Agenda. Thomas Mann e il dovere civile’, Tempo Presente 3 (January 1958), pp. 1–5.

  49. 49.

    See N. Chiaromonte, ‘Camus e la rivolta dell’individuo’, Tempo Presente 1 (July 1956), pp. 317–319. Camus was one of Chiaromonte’s closest friends.

  50. 50.

    See I. Silone, ‘Invito ad un esame di coscienza’, Tempo Presente 1 (December 1956), pp. 681–689.

  51. 51.

    N. Chiaromonte, ‘La situazione di massa e i valori nobili’, Tempo Presente 1 (April 1956), pp. 23–36.

  52. 52.

    E. Forcella, ‘Millecinquecento lettori’, Tempo Presente 4 (June 1959), pp. 451–458.

  53. 53.

    In April 1960, Silone spoke of Italy as an ‘encoded democracy’, in the sense that the rules of the game which guided Italian politics could not be deciphered by most citizens: ‘Agenda. Democrazia cifrata’, Tempo Presente 5 (April 1960), pp. 201–203. In July of the same year, Chiaromonte complained that, in the fifteen years of Christian Democratic rule, all orientation had been lost, every responsible and effective decision paralysed, and policies introduced that had ‘no need to be either Fascist or Communist’ to be disturbing: ‘I fatti e la cifra’, Tempo Presente 4 (July 1960), pp. 453–455.

  54. 54.

    For a reconstruction of this matter, including its international consequences, see Carlucci, ‘Intellettuali’, pp. 16–21.

  55. 55.

    See N. Chiaromonte, ‘Eichmann e oltre’, Tempo Presente 6 (December 1961), pp. 919–921. The idea of civil disobedience was central to Chiaromonte’s thinking. See P. Carlucci, ‘La necessità del limite: il Sessantotto di Nicola Chiaromonte tra autobiografia e riflessione pubblica’, Ventunesimo Secolo 9 (June 2010), pp. 177–190.

  56. 56.

    Carlucci, ‘Tempo Presente’, pp. 470–472. As is well-known, Macdonald’s article was at the centre of one of the most critical episodes of censorship by the CCF; see Frances Saunders, Who Paid the Piper? The CIA and the Cultural Cold War (London Granta, 1999), pp. 314–323.

  57. 57.

    N. Chiaromonte, ‘Gazzetta. Le idee di George Kennan’, Tempo Presente 3 (April 1958), pp. 328–330; N. Chiaromonte, ‘Gazzetta. Apocalissi e ragion di Stato’, Tempo Presente 3 (May 1958), pp. 417–419.

  58. 58.

    See M. Calamandrei, ‘Lettera da Washington’, Tempo Presente 8 (February 1963), pp. 46–50.

  59. 59.

    ‘Kennedy e dopo’, Tempo Presente 8 (December 1963), pp. 1–11.

  60. 60.

    Chiaromonte was particularly hurt by the behaviour of Dwight McDonald. See M. Wreszin, A Rebel in Defense of Tradition: The Life and Politics of Dwight Macdonald (New York: Basic Books 1994), pp. 427–428.

  61. 61.

    Chiaromonte to McCarthy, 9 June 1967, Box 187, Folder 12, MMP.

  62. 62.

    According to Chiaromonte, Feltrinelli declined to publish the book because of McCarthy’s ties with Tempo Presente; see letters by Chiaromonte to McCarthy, May–June 1967, Box 187, Folder 12, MMP.

  63. 63.

    ‘Sulla guerra del Vietnam’, Tempo Presente 10 (November 1965), pp. 6–7: 6.

  64. 64.

    T. Draper, ‘La tragedia americana, Vietnam, Cuba e Santo Domingo ovvero la politica dell’escalation’, Tempo Presente 12 (March–April 1967), pp. 15–51.

  65. 65.

    N. Chiaromonte, ‘Gioventù indocile (Cronaca)’, Tempo Presente 10 (April 1965), pp. 2–5.

  66. 66.

    E. Golino, ‘Gazzetta. Università e Editoria’, Tempo Presente 9 (January 1964), pp. 68–69; N. Chiaromonte, ‘Cronaca. Gli studenti di Madrid’, Tempo Presente 10 (March 1965), pp. 2–3.

  67. 67.

    See N. Chiaromonte, ‘Cronaca. La nuova Sinistra’, Tempo Presente 12 (September–October 1967), pp. 2–4.

  68. 68.

    N. Chiaromonte, ‘La tirannia moderna’, Tempo Presente 13 (May 1968), pp. 6–19: 6.

  69. 69.

    Silone fully shared Chiaromonte’s view on this point. Esp. see I. Silone, ‘Intorno al processo’, Tempo Presente 11 (February 1966), pp. 4–6.

  70. 70.

    See Richard Pells, Not Like Us: How Europeans Have Loved, Hated, and Transformed American Culture Since World War II (New York: Basic Books, 1997).

  71. 71.

    N. Chiaromonte to D. Macdonald, 10 July 1965, Box 10, Folder 244, Dwight Macdonald Papers, Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.

  72. 72.

    G. Salvemini to I. Silone, 1950, Series I: Corrispondenza Generale, Folder 2, ISP.

  73. 73.

    C. Greenberg ‘An Interview with Ignazio Silone’ [translated from the French by Nancy and Dwight Macdonald], Partisan Review 6 (1939), p. 25. See also E. Saccarelli, ‘The Intellectual as Agent: Politics and Independence in the Other “Caso Silone”’, History of European Ideas, 40 (2014), pp. 381–405.

  74. 74.

    D. Muraca, ‘L’associazione italiana per la libertà della cultura: il “caso italiano” e il Congress for Cultural Freedom’, Storiografia 11 (2007), p. 142.

  75. 75.

    M. Mastrogregori, ‘Libertà della cultura e “guerra fredda culturale”. Bobbio, gli intellettuali “atlantici” e i comunisti alle origini di Politica e cultura (1955)’, Storiografia 11 (2007), p. 21.

  76. 76.

    N. Chiaromonte to I. Silone, 30 October, 1951, Series I Correspondence, Box 4, Folder 132, NCP.

  77. 77.

    N. Nabokov to M. Josselson, 1 June 1954, International Association for Cultural Freedom Records, Box 251, Folder 12, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago (hereafter IACF).

  78. 78.

    M. Josselson to N. Nabokov, 4 June 1954, Box 251, Folder 12, IACF.

  79. 79.

    Muraca, ‘L’associazione italiana’, p. 157.

  80. 80.

    M. Josselson to N. Nabokov, 5 March 1954, Box 251, Folder 13, IACF.

  81. 81.

    I. Silone to M. Lasky, 31 March 1950, Series XIII: Associazione Italiana per la Libertà della Cultura, Folder 32–1, ISP.

  82. 82.

    A. Moravia to N. Chiaromonte, n.d. [1946?], Box 2, Folder 60, NCP.

  83. 83.

    C. Panizza, ‘Percorsi dell’anticomunismo democratico: Nicola Chiaromonte e “Il tempo della malafede”’, Storia e problemi contemporanei. Intellettuali e Anticomunismo, 24/57 (Bologna: CLUEB, 2011), p. 70.

  84. 84.

    Pugliese, Bitter Spring, p. 227.

  85. 85.

    C. Greenberg (1939) ‘An Interview with Ignazio Silone’, p. 27.

  86. 86.

    E. Capozzi, ‘L’opposizione all’antiamericanismo: il Congress for Cultural Freedom e l’Associazione italiana per la libertà della cultura’, in P. Craveri and G. Quagliarello (eds.) L’Antiamericanismo in Italia e in Europa nel secondo dopoguerra (Soveria Mannelli: Rubettino, 2004), p. 341.

  87. 87.

    N. Chiaromonte to Mrożek, 15 May 1967, Box 4, Folder 124, NCP.

  88. 88.

    Federico Romero, ‘La scelta atlantica e americana’, in F. Romero and A. Varsori (eds.) Nazione, interdipendenza, integrazione: le relazioni internazionali dell’Italia 1917–1989 (Rome: Carocci, 2006), p. 156.

  89. 89.

    Estimating the CCF’s financial subsidies to Tempo Presente (1956–1968) is arduous due to the lack of full and detailed records. Stonor Saunders refers to a document in which Josselson states Tempo Presente received $34,800 in 1964. Josselson also expressed his commitment to give around $46,000 for the following year. Peter Coleman has estimated that, in 1966, Tempo Presente received $45,000 from the CCF. However, the journal was always short of funds, even with these subsidies. Silone and Chiaromonte tried to find alternative sources, with Silone also investing his own money. Spadolini recalled that, in 1962, he succeeded in convincing the socialist Silone to collaborate with his ‘bourgeois’ daily Il Resto Del Carlino by paying him enough to keep Tempo Presente afloat. See Pugliese, Bitter Spring, p. 236.

  90. 90.

    S. Lucas, Freedom’s War (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1999), pp. 2–3.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Birmingham, Birmingham, England

    Chiara Morbi

  2. Università per Stranieri, Siena, Italy

    Paola Carlucci

Authors
  1. Chiara Morbi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Paola Carlucci
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chiara Morbi .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of History, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Giles Scott-Smith

  2. Amerika-Institut, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany

    Charlotte A. Lerg

Copyright information

© 2017 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Morbi, C., Carlucci, P. (2017). Beyond the Cold War: Tempo Presente in Italy. In: Scott-Smith, G., Lerg, C. (eds) Campaigning Culture and the Global Cold War. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59867-7_7

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59867-7_7

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-59866-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-59867-7

  • eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation