History


The Red Shirt and the Cross of Savoy,
the Story of Italy's Risorgimento

(NY: Dodd, Mead, 1969)

"Let it be clearly stated at the start that George Martin's huge volume on the Italian Risorgimento represents an enviably successful literary and historiographical performance... Martin has written excellent history... There is not presently available in English another single work that for its diligence, seriousness, and commitment succeeds in doing greater justice to the politics of the Italian national revolution in the nineteenth century...." A. William Salamone, The Yale Review, Winter 1970, 268-278.

“Martin is well acquainted with Italy and has read widely on this subject. Most important, he knows how to convey to the reader his own fascination with the romantic theme of Italian unification… The strength of Mr. Martin’s synthesis likes in the author’s literary skill, his stress on the role of colorful individuals, and his ability to illuminate many of the less well known bypaths of Risorgimento history.” Charles F. Delzell, Nashville Banner.

"Martin ably discusses the delicate and thorny subject of church and state, the conquest of the papal states, the annexation of Rome to the newly formed kingdom of Italy and the Law of Guarantees which reduced the Pope’s temporal power to villa Castel Gandolfo, the Lateran Palaces and, of course, the Vatican. Alfonso D’Emilia, The Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Out of print but second-hand copies can be found.



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