Pedagogia civile e nation-building nelle Storie d’Italia di Luigi Capuana

Civil education and nation-building in Luigi Capuana’s handbooks of Italian history In his school textbooks published in the early twentieth century, Capuana fully revealed the role of educator and creator of national identity he intended to carry out. In them, the author identifies in the conflict between the political forces and in the absence of unifying spirit the reasons of the delay in the political unification of Italy. Adherence to the moderate liberalism, which differed both from legitimist conservatism and from republican radicalism, would thus led Capuana to express his sympathy to the “good governance” of the historical Right without preventing him from later recognizing colonialism supported by Francesco Crispi as an unavoidable historical necessity.