ABOUT THE BOOK
During the First World War, over 300,000 Italian emigrants returned to Italy from around the world to perform their conscripted military service, a mass mobilisation which was a uniquely Italian phenomenon. But what happened to these men following their arrival and once the war had ended? In Emigrant Soldiers: Mobilising Italians Abroad in the First World War, Selena Daly reconstructs the lives of these emigrant soldiers before, during and after the First World War, considering their motivations, combat experiences, demobilisation, and lives under Fascism and in the Second World War. Adopting a micro-historical approach, Daly explores the diverse fates of four men who returned from the United States, Brazil, France, and Britain, interwoven with accounts of other emigrants from across Europe, the Americas, Africa, the Middle East and Australia. Through letters, diaries, memoirs, oral histories, newspapers, and diplomatic reports, Daly focuses on the experiences and voices of the emigrant soldiers, providing a new global account of Italians during the First World War.
Emigrant Soldiers. Mobilising Italians Abroad in the First World War is published by Cambridge University Press.
ABOUT THE EVENT
Selena Daly will be in conversation with Heather Jones, Professor in Modern and Contemporary European History at UCL.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Selena Daly is an Associate Professor of Italian Studies at University College London. Her research explores modern Italy with a focus on the history of Italian emigration. Previous publications include Italian Futurism and the First World War (2016), which was shortlisted for The Bridge Book Award 2017. She is currently writing a trade book about the global history of Italian emigration from Marco Polo to today, to appear with Viking Penguin, Hodder & Stoughton, and Mondadori in 2028.
