Laura Fermi, Ordinary Genius
“Put your grandmother Laura first, ahead of Enrico,” I can still hear my mother urging me. These were not exactly Nella Fermi Weiner’s last words, but she said them to…
Essays
Quaestio De Centauris
In the fall, crowning a twelve year effort by W.W. Norton’s editor Bob Weil, Primo Levi’s complete works will be available in English for the first time. Norton’s Liveright imprint…
The Rebuilder
By reimagining landmark New York buildings like the Astor Library, which became the Public Theater, Giorgio Cavaglieri championed the architectural preservation that shaped the modern city “Architecture,” said Vincent…
A Refugee Camp at Cinecittà
The Cinecittà Refugee Camp (1944–1950) Yes, they have sacked and destroyed it; the few remaining buildings accommodate only destitute, displaced families. But permit me to believe that on the highest…
Spina’s Shadow
“Darling, this is Alessandro Spina, who is trying to make Italians feel guilty about their colonial crimes.” Three months after Alessandro Spina’s death in July 2013, Ilario Bertoletti, his Italian…
Italian Jewish Women Artists in the 20th Century
Between June and October 2014, an exhibition entitled Artiste del Novecento tra visione e identità ebraica [Women Artists of the Twentieth Century/Vision and Jewish Identity] was held at the Galleria…
The Fosse Ardeatine
The Massacre at the Fosse Ardeatine. History, Myth, Ritual, and Symbol Over the course of seventy years, national memory, historiography and the justice system have shown profound ambivalence towards…
Sixty Years Fighting Oblivion
The Center for Contemporary Jewish Documentation in Milan In a collection of essays published by Yad Vashem in 2009, David Bankier and Dan Michman devote one chapter to the simultaneous…
Our Life Was Divided
“Our Life Was Divided in Many Facets”1: Anna Foa Yona, an Anti-Fascist Jewish Refugee in Wartime United States Introduction Migration studies have dismissed the somewhat uncritical and romantic celebration of…
An Antifascist Between Italy and the United States
Davide Grippa, Un antifascista tra Italia e Stati Uniti. Democrazia e identità nazionale nel pensiero di Max Ascoli (1898-1947) Long ignored by the historiography of Italian antifascism, Max Ascoli has…