Unemployment in the 1930s: The Case of Italy

Abstract

The historiography of the Great Depression is still an infant industry in Italy. The number of books and papers explicitly dealing with it is probably within the single figure range. The reasons for this poverty of research, in an area that in the past decade has become important and fashionable in most other countries, are deeply rooted in the historical culture that sprang from the Resistance and the Reconstruction. For three decades after the end of the Second World War historical research centred on explaining the origins of Fascism, the reasons for its long survival and the causes of its eventual failure. These problems were either studied in broad terms such as the “nature” of Fascism and its “continuity” or “discontinuity” with the previous history of Italian capitalism, or were investigated within the long-standing methodological tradition of local history. Only in the 1970s did the political and, to a lesser extent, the economic life of the country during the 1920s and the 1930s begin to attract standard historical research. This was partly a result of the debate originated by De Felice’s monumental and controversial biography of Mussolini. However, the macroeconomics of the Great Depression is still a largely unexplored area, within which the field of employment, unemployment and labour policies has remained almost untouched.

Financial support from the Italian Ministry of Education is gratefully acknowledged. Thanks are due to Maria Berletti and Christina Giordani for competent research assistance, and to Stefano Fenoaltea and Giuseppe Tattara for helpful comments.