Content
The title
- Multiple meanings of the title
- “sorpasso”
- the act of overtaking a car
- also, a metaphor applied to economic and political growth
- possibly a reference Italy’s recovery from the losses of WWII, suggesting revanchism, national pride
Italian history
- A young nation (1861-)
- a mission of civilization
- modern progress
- late to the colonial game
- 1915-18: WWI and nation-building (socially and territorially)
- 1922-43: the first Fascist government
- Italian society and the economy under Fascism: urbanization and industrialization
- support given to agriculture for the sake of autonomy from international powers, and independence (autarchia), especially after the international sanctions imposed on Italy after the invasion and conquest of Ethiopia (1935-37)
- 1943-45: the ‘civil war’ and the destruction of houses and of the primary and secondary industrial infrastructure
- 1940s and 1950s
- 1946-48: the Republic and the Constitution
- 1948-1992: dominance of Christian Democrats, opposition of Communists, center-right or center-left governments
- the Cold War and the interference of the US and the USSR
- 1945-1964: the reconstruction, the boom, the first crisis
The years of the “economic miracle”
- Italian national holidays and the economy
- Ferragosto’s urban rituals
- the secularization of the calendar
- Vacations as a mass rituals for urbanized and industrialized lower and middle classes
- The commodification of summer
- peak time for the consumption of goods and services (hotels, pensioni)
- the “tormentoni” (summer hit songs)
Summer