On the 80th anniversary of the Racial Laws. Articles reflecting the current scholarship on Italian Fascist anti-Semitism in honour of Michele Sarfatti

ABSTRACT

This special issue of the Journal of Modern Italian Studies, edited by Annalisa Capristo and Ernest Ialongo, marks the 80^th anniversary of the implementation of the Racial Laws in Fascist Italy. It is an opportunity to assess the evolution of the historical literature on Fascist anti-Semitism and to mark future directions for research, but also to pay homage to Michele Sarfatti, who was critical in the development of the current state of the historiography on the subject. Where the earlier work, before the 1980s, was founded on the idea of ‘Italiani brava gente’, wherein Italy’s role was downplayed in the persecution of the Jews and in the Holocaust, that Italians were simply too humane to have participated in such horrific events, Sarfatti’s work launched a veritable revolution in the field, which dismantled all the tenets of the original consensus. This introduction surveys these developments, and summarizes the contributions of the varied authors published here who continue to challenge old truths and bring us closer to a more full and accurate understanding of Fascist anti-Semitism.     

Book reviews

NEHRU. A POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY. Michael Brecher. London, O.U.P., 1959. Pp. xvi + 682. Australian price 62/‐.

SOVIET STRATEGY IN THE NUCLEAR AGE. Raymond L. Garthoff. London, Atlantic Books, Stevens and Sons, 1958. Pp. xvi + 283. Australian price 34/6.

ATOMIC ENERGY IN THE SOVIET BLOC. G. A. Modelski. For the Australian National University. Melbourne University Press, 1959. Pp. 226. 30/‐.

A SHORT HISTORY OF FRANCE FROM EARLY TIMES TO 1958. J. Hampden Jackson (Ed.) Contributions by the editor, Herbert Butterfield, D. W. Brogan, H. C. Darby, Sir Ernest Barker, A. Ewert and I. L. Foster. Cambridge University Press, 1959. Stg. 20/‐.

GERMANY AND WORLD POLITICS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. Ludwig Dehio. Translated by Dieter Pevsner. London, Chatto and Windus, 1959. Pp. 142. Australian price 29/9.

THE IMPERIAL IDEA AND ITS ENEMIES. A. P. Thornton. London, Macmillan and Co., 1959. Pp. xiv + 370.

MAJOR GOVERNMENTS OF ASIA. G. McT. Kahin (ed.). Cornell University Press, 1958. Pp. 607. $7.25

GOVERNMENTS AND POLITICS OF SOUTHEAST ASIA. G. McT. Kahin (ed.). Cornell University Press, 1959. Pp. 531. $7.25.

SOCIALISM IN SOUTHERN ASIA. Saul Rose. Issued under the auspices of the Royal Institute of International Affairs. Oxford University Press, 1959. Pp. 278, with map. Australian price 49/9.

STALIN'S FAILURE IN CHINA. Conrad Brandt. Harvard University Press, 1958. Pp. ix + 226. Australian price 52/3.

AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS. AN INTRODUCTORY SURVEY. J. D. B. Miller. George Duckworth & Co. Ltd., London. Second Edition. 1959.     

WHAT ATTRACTS KNOWLEDGE WORKERS? THE ROLE OF SPACE AND SOCIAL NETWORKS

The aim of this paper is to identify the determinants of the geographical mobility of skilled individuals, such as inventors, across European regions. Among a large number of variables, we focus on the role of social proximity between inventors’ communities. We use a control function approach to address the endogenous nature of networks, and zero‐inflated negative binomial models to accommodate our estimations to the count nature of the dependent variable and the high number of zeros it contains. Our results highlight the importance of physical proximity, job opportunities, social networks, as well as other relational variables in mediating this phenomenon.     

Systems theory,systems art and the computer: Ernest Edmonds interviewed by Francesca Franco

ABSTRACT

This interview with Edmonds, conducted by Franco in 2016, explores how Systems art, Systems Theory, and his personal relationships with artists such as Malcolm Hughes, Kenneth Martin and Edward Ihnatowicz influenced his art practice.