Anna Cento Bull

Italian Neofascism: The Strategy of Tension and the Politics of Nonreconciliation examines the political violence (stragismo) carried out by neofascist groups in Italy between the 1960s and 1980s. A large part of the book is drawn from judicial findings, from which Bull "links the neofascists with elements of the armed forces, Carabinieri and intelligence services, who at times worked to protect sources or sympathizers" but "leaves many unanswered questions in her narrative about the allegations of domestic and foreign intelligence agencies recruiting neofascists in response to fears of communist influences." Drawing on narrative psychology, the second part of the book examines neofascist and narratives of the violence. These largely disclaim responsibility in different ways. This section is constructed from interviews and published writings by Gabriele Adinolfi, Stefano Delle Chiaie, and Giuseppe Valerio Fioravanti.Shaffer, R. (2011). A Review of: “Anna Cento Bull. Italian Neofascism: The Strategy of Tension and the Politics of Nonreconciliation.”: Oxford, UK: Berghahn, 2007. 208 pp., $70.00 hardcover. ISBN: 978-1-84-545335-0. Terrorism and Political Violence, 23(2), 323–324. https://doi-org.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/10.1080/09546553.2011.555283 Bull concludes: "...it is only at the level of violent conflict that Italy may be deemed to have achieved a long- lasting peace. By any other criteria – tolerance, nonvictimisation, rehumanising and nondemonising the adversary, self-transformation and a more balanced self-identity – national reconciliation remains a distant target."Italian Neofascism. Page 167.

The book was positively reviewed in Terrorism and Political Violence and Modern Italy.O’Leary, A. (2010). Italian Neofascism: The strategy of tension and the politics of nonreconciliation, by Anna Cento Bull. Modern Italy, 15(1), 120–123. https://doi-org.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/10.1080/13532940903478243 The latter review notes that Bull "...makes an implicit argument about the hierarchies of historiography. She treats the long judicial casebooks produced in Italy as authoritative documents while characterising the statements and testimony of the right as symptomatic and tendentious rather than as sources of oral history."

As the title suggests, Ending Terrorism in Italy examines the conclusion of the Years of Lead. The first part of the book focuses on how terrorists were processed by the judicial and prison systems. In the 1980s laws were passed mandating harsher sentences for terrorism-related offences, while at the same time offering reduced sentences to former terrorists who gave information to police or simply dissociated themselves from their former groups (pentiti). Bull examines the trade-offs of these laws, which sometimes granted freedom to perpetrators who had failed to provide a clear account of their crimes, or resulted in violent offenders receiving lighter sentences than those who were involved with terrorist groups at lower levels (and thus had no useful information to share with authorities).Bull (book author), A. C., Cooke (book author), P., & Gastaldi (review author), S. (2015). "Ending Terrorism in Italy." Quaderni d'Italianistica, 35(2), 308–310. https://doi.org/10.33137/q.i.v35i2.23640 In the second part, Bull again examines memories of the violence, from the perspectives of perpetrators and victims (or their families). She notes that the latter focus more on the role of the state, which remains unclear: “Even if not proven, there are sufficient grounds for arguing that the behaviour of the Italian State in fighting armed terrorism has been relatively opaque and twisted, enough to require it to embark on some form of reparation and reconciliation.”Page 105. Quoted in: Bull (book author), A. C., Cooke (book author), P., & Gastaldi (review author), S. (2015). "Ending Terrorism in Italy." Quaderni d'Italianistica, 35(2), 308–310. https://doi.org/10.33137/q.i.v35i2.23640 The conclusion of the book considers prospects for reconciliation and shared memory, with the Northern Irish and Basque conflicts as reference points.Ruth Glynn. [http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=43327 Review of Cento Bull, Anna; Cooke, Philip E., Ending Terrorism in Italy]. H-Italy, H-Net Reviews. February, 2015.

The book was positively reviewed in H-Net: "...the primary contribution of Ending Terrorism in Italy lies in its original and comprehensive account of the various processes, factors, and practices contributing to the ending of terrorism in Italy and its incisive evaluation of the legacy of the same."

• From Peasant to Entrepreneur: The Survival of the Family Economy in Italy [with P. Corner] (1993)
• Entrepreneurial Textile Communities [with M. Pitt and J. Szarka] (1993)
• Social Identities and Political Cultures in Italy (2000)
• The Lega Nord and the Northern Question in Italian Politics [with M. Gilbert] (2001)
• Italian Neofascism: The Strategy of Tension and the Politics of Nonreconciliation (2007)
• Ending Terrorism in Italy [with P. Cooke] (2013)
• Modern Italy: A Very Short Introduction (2017)

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• [https://researchportal.bath.ac.uk/en/persons/anna-bull University of Bath site]

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Category:Living people

Category:British women historians

Category:Academics of the University of Bath