October 8, 2007
The Deep Freeze
(This article first appeared in US Italia weekly on December 18, 2005)
We come in from the cold of contemplating George Bush’s Awful Autumn to return to the building of our structure of understanding of the contemporary Italian political culture…only to encounter the great freeze of Italian politics.
October 8, 2007
The Iron Clad Rule
(This article first appeared in US Italia weekly on December 11, 2005)
This last of our considerations of the relation between the current American presidential malaise and the larger systems of the Italian political culture is the most poignant for the current Italian political debate: the use of primary elections for the choosing of party-or-coalition candidates.
October 8, 2007
Rash and Dangerous
(This article first appeared in US Italia weekly on December 4, 2005)
George Bush’s awful autumn has led us to break our construction project to reflect on how the upcoming years of American discontent relate not to the headlines, but to long-term and structural elements of Italian politics.
October 8, 2007
The Slowly Ticking Clock
(This article first appeared in US Italia weekly on November 27, 2005)
The eminent political scientist Immanuel Wallerstein wrote recently that “everything went wrong for George W. Bush in October, 2005,” leaving him “like someone buried in a mudslide.” He was referring to the casualty rate in Iraq (the 2000 mark seemed to stun even early war-supporters), the indictments of...
October 7, 2007
Rites, not Races
(This article first appeared in US Italia weekly on November 20, 2005)
Last time we asserted that the most important new (last twenty years) personality on the Italian political scene is not Silvio Berlusconi. It is the floating voter. Throughout most of the postwar period, most Italians did not face elections with a sense of choice, but with a sense of a rite. He/she was irrevocably married (with divorce rare) to one of the...
“All for the Love of Olive Oil”
“This is my heart. We put so much into this,” said Matthew Battaglia, as he proudly held up a 750 ml bottle of his much-prized olive oil, called Olio D’Oliva Extravergine dei Fratelli Battaglia.
October 7, 2007
The Voter in Chains
(This article first appeared on US Italia weekly on November 13, 2005)
We promised in the first Gothic column to introduce the most important new political figure in Italy in the last twenty years — not Silvio Berlusconi, but the floating voter. We’ll start with his predecessor.
October 7, 2007
Why Gothic?
(This article first appeared in UsItalia weekly on October 30, 2005)
This column will develop a structure of understanding of the background, practices, code words and quirks of Italian politics — a framework most people think they don’t need.
i-Italy Gothic One
This wonderful digital initiative, i-Italy, is, for those concerned with Italian politics, born under a cloud. By chance, it arrives at the same moment as the birth, in Italy, of the Partito democratico.
October 7, 2007
Should We Celebrate Columbus Day? And Why?
Columbus, like many figures of history, has outlived his usefulness for all Americans, but for Italian Americans he continues to represent the struggle their immigrant forbearers overcame in becoming Americans. I am here to tell you that we do not need to depend on Columbus’ story if we 1) tell our stories, and 2) incorporate those stories into the history of the United States. (...) But On Columbus Day, we should celebrate the arrival of all Italians to the United States, for they were responsible, among other things, for teaching the ‘mericans how to eat well!
Kick-off!!
The Consul General of Italy in New York, Mr. Francesco Maria Talò, speaks at the launcing event organized for i-Italy at the Graduate School of Journalism of the City University of New York.
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