Review by Choice Review
Gooch's brief history of the Italian army from the risorgimento to WW I might well have been subtitled "A Study in Failure." To begin with, the army was weak because Italy was a poor country with a badly educated population. Even the middle class, which might have made a difference had it been larger, was not particularly patriotic (indeed, it was remarkably unwilling to engage in military service). There were political reasons for weakness as well. The high command was insulated from civilian policymakers, and the officer corps vitiated by factionalism. Time and again, the morale of the army suffered when troops were sent in as police forces to repress peasant rebels or urban strikers. Even had the army not had to face all this, there remained the task of defending a country whose coastlines made it almost indefensible. What crowned everything was the willingness of the political leaders of Italy to go to war for ill-considered and short-term goals--first in Africa and then, with fatal consequences, in Europe. This is an excellent work, written with clarity and conciseness. Upper-division undergraduates and above. -S. Bailey, Knox College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
