2015 Luigi De Rosa Lecture on Global History

The Journal of European Economic History, ABI and ABI Bancaria Editrice invited PRB to the 2015 Luigi De Rosa Lecture on Global History. The event took place in the modern Scuderie di Palazzo Altieri venue. Giovanni Sabatini (ABI General Director) saluted the event and Gateano Sabatini (Università Roma Tre) introduced the participants. The speech of John Davis, Professor of European History at the University of Connecticut, followed shortly after.

The lectio was organized by Nicola Forti – Director of ABI Bancaria Editrice, and by its staff.

Event Agenda
JEEH archive presentation
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Nicola Forti - Director ABI Bancaria Editrice (Ph: Bancaforte)

Giovanni Sabatini thanks the attendees. He reminds them that ABI Servizi acquired the Journal of European Economic History, an admirable work that was sparked by Luigi De Rosa, whose wife is among the audience with their son Alberto.

Economist Joseph Schumpeter said that “the majority of mistakes in economics lies on ignoring historical events”: the Journal initiative is thus especially important.

John Davis is one of the main scholars of Italian history. He believes the main issue with Italy is not its economic growth but rather the gap between the North and the South.

Gaetano Sabatini was one of Luigi Re Rosa’s students, and has known John Davis since the beginning of his academic career, appreciating the wide scientific production.

He thanks Nicola Forti and ABI Bancaria Editrice staff for the organization of this meeting and for having designed the magazine’s website; a truly important work that required a large amount of resources. He invites the audience to visit the website at www.jeeh.it.

John Davis met Luigi De Rosa in the 70s, while he was spending two years in Naples as the curator of a project for the University of Oxford; it was an opportunity to meet many young Italian scholars as well.

He conforts the Mezzogiorno (the Noon, the Italian South) issue, from the 50s onwards, i.e. from the massive migrations from the South that reshaped Italy. Then the political storms, the serious events like the murders of Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, the Nuova Repubblica (New Republic) with the rise of Fiscal federalism. However, inequalities in Italy were not different compared to those in other countries, like the USA, France, Belgium, Ireland, Spain, … In 2014, the Mezzogiorno is still facing a wide gap with the North: we are back to the gap there was in 2000, and the number of young migrants has arisen.

He wraps his speech up remarking the Questione Meridionale is very complex and it still remains unsolved due to clientelism, corruption and crime resilience; both people’s dissatisfaction and deindustrialization are on the rise. Unfortunately, advices by the most qualified economists were ignored.

He then points out that, as of today, he is not very optimistic and a positive solution is unlikely.

Gaetano Sabatini opens a debate and asks if the audience has any questions: Maurizio d’Amato, Cesare Imbriani, Paolo Salerno, Marcello Predice, Alfredo Gigliobiano (Banca d’Italia) and other distinguished participants intervene.

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john davis
Funds had been syphoned off for purposes that had more to do with political patronage and even corruption than development.

John Davis / Professor, University of Connecticut

Unique or universal? Italy's southern question in transnational perspective

Italian history Specialist, from 1700 to the present day, and expert at decoding the underlying links between economic and social European history from the 1750, John Davis was awarded the Galileo Galilei prize as an acknowledgment for his contributions to the modern Italian history. He is currently working on the Questione Meridionale: from the Unification to the present.

Parts of John Davis’ talk are available following the links on this page.