Le ideologie del classicismo tra le due guerre in Italia, Francia e Gran Bretagna

This research aims to analyze the relationship between historiography and politics in Europe between the two World Wars. In particular, it focuses on how ancient history was studied and taught in Italy, France and the United Kingdom. Although they had very different political evolution, these national contexts did not remain isolated, and from 1925 to 1945 they witnessed significant and reciprocal mobility, of ideas, books and people. Precisely to emphasize this latter aspect, this research adopted a transnational approach and applied it to the three case studies. The first part of the research reconstructs how Julius Caesar was interpreted in Europe during that period. Mussolini presented himself as Caesar's heir. In this context, many classical scholars, in Italy and abroad, supported this comparison, implying – sometime not even implicitly – that having a strong man in charge was the only way out of the crisis of liberal democracies. This interpretation was not unanimous, though, and the thesis aims at illustrating the complex framing of this discussion. Also the celebrations organized by the fascist regime for the Augustan Bimillenary in 1937-1938 had an explicit propagandistic aim. The second part of the thesis examines both the contribution of foreign scholars to these celebrations, and how these celebrations were received outside Italy. The relationship between the Augustan bimillenary celebrations, fascist racist policies, and the resulting forced mobility of Jewish scholars is also explored. Finally, the third part analyses the debate on the concepts of peace and freedom in the Ancient world. In 1939, the publication of Ronald Syme's The Roman Revolution gave new impetus to this debate. An exile from fascist Italy, Arnaldo Momigliano, immediately grasped the political significance of this work: he highlighted the risks implied in Syme’s conclusions, and shifted the focus of his research from peace to freedom. This research explores these themes through an itinerary which delves into the history of classical scholarship, the history of publishing, and contemporary history. In this way it is possible to study the interaction of historiography and politics in different historical moments, contexts, and through different media. The result is a rich, – as well as complex - picture of Europe between the two World Wars, a continent marked by nationalisms but at the same time deeply interconnected.