2008, Volume 14, N°2 - Centre d'études et de recherches ...

180
Book reviews – Comptes rendus – Buchbesprechungen
Italian refugees, such as debates, conferences, articles in newspapers and the
diffusion of publications (among these the collection of “Quaderni del MFE”), very
successful almost among young people (chapter IX).
Coming back to Italy (April 1945), during the first two years of the post World
War period, Rossi leaves for a while the federalist project because the ideal
premises for a Jacobin action are not given and he accepts some governmental
appointments regarding the Italian economic reconstruction. At the same time he
regains interest in topics such as state secularism, struggle for privileges, and
institutional reforms. The political engagement for a European federation starts
again, along with Spinelli, with the Marshall Plan and in a more active way at the
beginning of the European integration process. Anyway, Rossi criticizes the
adoption of the functionalist method. While the project of EDC develops and
finally fails, Rossi is involved in the MFE for the last time (chapter X): according to
his letters following the failure of the EDC project, he continues to consider
federation as the only solution to the contemporary problems, but at the same time
he is convinced that it can only be achieved by following the Jacobin line, the only
appropriate political strategy in his eyes (chapter XI).
The contents of the book justify the title chosen by the author. Rossi has been a
“federalist”, “a pioneer of the United States of Europe”, because he had a federalist
view of European unity. His federalist thought certainly existed before the meeting
with Spinelli. Nonetheless the influence of the latter was important for him to
master his own ideas and to put them into a plan of action. He has also been a
“Jacobin federalist” (attribute already used by Spinelli to describe his personality in
Come ho tentato di diventare saggio, Il Mulino, Bologna, 1999 – 1 st ed. 1984 -,
p.304), because he thought that the European federation could be achieved with a
strategy defined as “Jacobin”, i.e. based on the capacity to combine the individual
will into a concerted action in order to change the existing institutions, as happened
in the political revolutions of the past (e.g. in the French and in the American
revolution).
In conclusion, reading this book may be recommended, first for the originality
and the effectiveness of explanations given by the author which contribute to
broaden the knowledge of Rossi’s thought and political action; and secondly for the
wealth of the bibliographical sources and contents.
Ilaria Pasotti,
University of Florence – Università degli Studi di Firenze
Alberto COVA (a cura di), Il dilemma dell’integrazione. L’inserimento
dell’economia italiana nel sistema occidentale (1945-1957), FrancoAngeli,
Milano, 2008, 617 p. – ISBN 978-88-464-9031-5 – 38,00 €.
The reconstruction of the Italian economy after World War II and its insertion in the
international system is doubtlessly one of the most studied subjects in the
historiography of the Italian Republic. 3 Faced with a literature that has produced a