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Vittorio Orlando: Italy (Makers of the Modern World Series)
Description:Vittorio Emanuele Orlando was the Italian representative to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. This book focuses on him not only in that role, but as
Education and Justice minister during the Liberal period in pre-war Italy, and as Interior Minister and Prime Minister during World War I. Before the
war, he was instrumental in reconciling the Church and State and expanding civil rights. Orlando took over the country during its darkest days during
World War I and led it to victory. During the Peace Conference, he clashed with President Woodrow Wilson in an unfortunate struggle that contributed to
the rise of fascism in Italy. This book is the first one on Orlando in English and is based on archival and other primary sources.
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UMASS Boston History Professor Wins National Award for Teaching Excellence
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History professor Spencer DiScala received the 2007 Excellence in Teaching Award from the University
Continuing Education Association (UCEA) in recognition of his innovative online teaching methods,
which use familiar Internet communication tools, such as discussion forums and weblogs, to bring
historical characters to life.
Professor DiScala is one of UMass Boston’s pre-eminent scholars, with an impressive record of
publications, presentations, academic honors, and service to the University and the community.
Professor DiScala has also been a long-standing supporter of and participant in UMass Boston’s
Division of Corporate, Continuing and Distance Education (CCDE), teaching extremely popular courses
in the summer school, winter session, and weekend college.
When CCDE began offering web-based distance education classes six years ago, Professor DiScala was
an early adopter of the technology and immediately began thinking about ways to use the online
format to bring the subject matter alive for students. The method Professor DiScala developed was
to post communications from historical personages in each of the courses he teaches.
For instance, in one class, two Italian prime ministers of the late nineteenth century posted to an
online class discussion to take issue with the way they have been characterized by historians. In
another, King Victor Emmanuel sent a letter to the class defending his response to the rise of
Mussolini in the 1920's.
The concept behind these communications is to bring an historical figure alive for students within
both the general context of the historical period and the specific context in which he or she had
to take action. The forms these communications take vary in each course from session to session,
so students will find different ways of engaging with the material throughout the course.
Students have responded to DiScala's teaching with enthusiasm. His course evaluations have been
consistently excellent, with students expressing both appreciation for his teaching and, often,
surprise at the extent to which they became personally involved with the material.
The award was presented to Professor DiScala at the annual UCEA conference in Vancouver, British Columbia,
April 11-14.
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 La Repubblica,
Italy's largest circulation newspaper, devoted an entire page to my book Filippo Turati. Le origini della
Democrazia in Italia (2007), the Italian translation of my earlier work Dilemmas of Italian Socialism:
The Politics of Filippo Turati (1980).
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When my book on Filippo Turati appeared in Italy, a national debate took place on reformism and its
principal theoretician, Turati himself, in important newspapers including La Repubblica, L'Unita`,
and Avanti!, and in the Italian Parliament, the radio, and TV. While the three newspapers I
mentioned published major articles supporting my viewpoint, an article in the
Corriere della Sera
argued that present-day Italian leaders should not follow Turati's policies because he should have
broken with the Socialist left wing before he did because, had he done so, the Socialist Party might
have been able to prevent the coming of Mussolini to power. Here you have an image of my rebuttal,
which appeared in the same newspaper and showed images of Turati, his partner Anna Kuliscioff, and
other leaders. In my response, I point out the article's lack of relevance to my book's argument.
Had Turati broken with the Socialist left wing in 1919, when it had a majority in the party because
of the influence of the Bolshevik Revolution, his reformist faction would have been isolated and
powerless. The theme of my book is that Turati's reformism was a modern movement that the
Communists (heirs of the Socialist left wing) crushed, with Bolshevik support, that their attack on
him aided the rise of fascism, that they "erased" Turati from history despite the fact that he was
correct, that their policies damaged the country after World War II, and that while after eighty
years the Italian left now pays lip service to his tradition it does not implement his ideas.
Until the Italian left openly admits that it unfarily denigrated Turati, accepts his tradition, and
updates and implements his principles, it will remain on the margins and continue hurting itself
and the country.
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On January 5, 2009, at the American Historical Association conference, I delivered a paper titled "Legends, Lies,
and Historiography: Italy, the Great War, and the Paris Peace Conference."
[ Program ]
[ Paper ]
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Hall of the Chamber of Deputies where the symposium on my book Filippo Turati took place on January 16, 2008.
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Multimedia of papers I have given in Italy on various occasions, including the Senate symposium,
can be obtained online at www.radioradicale.it.
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