An outsider's vision: Gaetano Salvemini and the 1948 elections in Italy

Abstract

This article addresses a rather neglected aspect of Salvemini's prolific political output. Based on records collected in the Salvemini Archive at the Istituto Storico della Resistenza in Florence, this article examines Salvemini's perspective on the 1948 elections in Italy, through an analysis of his public writings and private correspondence. It considers the decisive impact that exile to the US and the academic environment of Harvard had on Salvemini's conception of democracy and politics, by making him an outsider in post-war Italy, a country polarised into the two competing ideological factions of the Communists and the Christian Democrats. Salvemini's fiercely independent spirit led him to criticise the Allies’ plans for post-war Italy and the American intervention in the 1948 elections under the auspices of the Cold War. Through an understanding of Salvemini's thought, this essay tries to offer a deeper analysis of the meaning of the 1948 elections as a watershed in the history of Italy.

Keywords:

• Italian politics (1922–1948)
• Gaetano Salvemini
• democracy
• Italy–US relations

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to the Department of Politics and the Center for Mediterranean and European Studies of New York University for providing a perfect academic environment during the writing of this article. He would like to thank Patrizia Audenino for her support and the anonymous referees for their helpful comments.

Notes

Notes

1. Qui sono tutti impazziti con le elezioni italiane. Si sono persuasi che dalle elezioni italiane dipendono i destini del mondo …. Io per conto mio, pur sapendo che il mestiere del profeta è assai pericoloso, ho continuato a dire che i comunisti si avvicineranno più al 30 che al 40 per cento nelle elezioni di domani, e che non avverrà nulla di eccezionale neanche dopo…. Durante la prima guerra mondiale, noi usavamo dire che in Germania la situazione era seria ma non era disperata, in Austria era disperata ma non era seria, e in Italia era disperata ma era normale. La situazione italiana è stata sempre disperata ma normale.

2. Incidentally, Salvemini did not recognise any trait of his third way as a future solution for Italian politics either in Roosevelt's Democratic Party or in the reformist Italian American Left. He considered their political positions to be compromised by their search for large consensus. As Charles Killinger (2002, 269) puts it in his biography of Salvemini, ‘Those Italian Americans who had succeeded had become adept at negotiations and political compromise, focused on the material concerns of their union membership. In short, they had become Americanized. In contrast, Salvemini … disdained political compromise.’

3. Istituto Storico della Resistenza Toscana (from now on ISRT), Fondo Salvemini, Busta 66 Carteggio, Fascicolo 1941–1957, Salvemini to Isabella Massey, May 1, 1941.

4. ISRT Busta 34, (Carte Tagliacozzo) Italia e America fra guerra e dopoguerra: lettere e documenti, sez. II, fascicolo 54/1 Salvemini to Ascoli, March 26, 1943. For a full account on the activities of the Italian anti-fascist exiles in the United States and their misfortunes see Alessandra Baldini and Paolo Palma (1990).

5. ISRT, Fondo Salvemini, Busta 66 Carteggio, Fascicolo 1941–1957, Salvemini to Isabella Massey, May 1, 1941.

6. ISRT, Fondo Salvemini, Busta 66 Carteggio, Fascicolo 1941–1957, Salvemini to Isabella Massey, May 1, 1941.

7. ISRT, Busta 66 Carteggio, Fascicolo 1941–1957, Salvemini to Isabella Massey, April 30, 1941.

8. ISRT, Busta 66 Carteggio, Fascicolo 1941–1957, Salvemini to Isabella Massey, April 30, 1941.

9. ISRT Busta 34, (Carte Tagliacozzo) Italia e America fra guerra e dopoguerra: lettere e documenti, sez. II, fascicolo 54/1 Salvemini to Isabella Massey, October 28, 1943.

10. Gaetano Salvemini. 1942. Our allies inside Italy. Common Sense XI, no. 12, December: 402.

11. Salvemini fiercely opposed and despised Ivanoe Bonomi because he had been minister of War in the last of Giolitti's cabinets (1920–21) and had briefly succeeded Giolitti as Prime Minister (1921–1922) where he displayed a shameful weakness towards the Fascist squads and their violence. See Salvemini to Angelo Tasca, January 5, 1949 (Salvemini and Tasca 1996, 156–57).

12. For a different interpretation concerning Salvemini and his anticlericalism see Gaetano Quagliariello (2007, 209–44).

13. The Unified Socialist Party (PSIUP), Communist Party (PCI), Christian Democratic Party (DC), Liberal Party (PLI), Action Party (Pd’A), Workers Party (PdL).

14. Secondo me, Pacciardi e Saragat, entrando nel ministero De Gasperi, hanno non solamente commesso un vero e proprio suicidio politico, ma hanno rovinato una posizione morale che avrebbe prodotto frutti inaspettati in questa campagna elettorale. Molti che si sarebbero raccolti intorno a un nucleo di centro sinistra indipendente tanto dai comunisti quanto dai cristiani-democratici, se ne staranno a casa disgustati dall’idea di servire come strame … ai democratici cristiani contro i comunisti.

15. Gaetano Salvemini. 1947. Roma–Washington e viceversa. Controcorrente, January: 2; and Bisogna non aver fretta. Controcorrente, February: 2.

16. ISRT, Busta 39 III/2/5d undated and untitled memorandum [December 1947]. See also Gaetano Salvemini. 1947. Ottimismo. Controcorrente, December: 1.

17. ISRT, Busta 39 III/2/5d undated and untitled memorandum [December 1947]. See also Gaetano Salvemini. 1948. Gioventù italiana. Controcorrente, February, 1–2.

18. Per me sento che il meglio che io possa fare è di starmene qui in silenzio, aspettando che anche questo disastroso esperimento delle elezioni del 18 aprile liquidi quel che pure avrebbero potuto salvare dai fallimenti di questi ultimi quattro anni.

19. Gaetano Salvemini. 1947. Roma Washington e viceversa. Controcorrente, January: 1; and Bisogna non aver fretta. Controcorrente, February, 1.

20. ISRT, busta 39/ III/2/7, Salvemini to Doris Pullen, Life Magazine, undated telegram.

21. Appeal to voters in Italy assailed protest wire sent to Truman by group here opposed to anti-communist drive. New York Times, April 15, 1948, 8.

22. Salvemini denies to protest on Italy. New York Times, April 16, 1948, 9.

23. ISRT busta 39/III/2/4c undated and untitled document.

24. ISRT busta 39/III/2/4c undated and untitled document.

25. ISRT busta 39/III/2/4c undated and untitled document.

26. ISRT busta 39/III/2/4a undated and untitled document; Gaetano Salvemini. 1947. Roma Washington e viceversa. Controcorrente, January: 1; and Bisogna non aver fretta. Controcorrente, February, 1.

27. ISRT busta 39 III/2/4g, Communism in Italy, undated.

28. Gaetano Salvemini. 1948. Gli Stati Uniti d'Europa. Controcorrente, January, 8.

29. ISRT, busta 39 III/2/4c, untitled and undated document.

30. Gaetano Salvemini. 1947. Azionisti e Socialisti. Controcorrente, May: 1; ISRT busta 39 III/2/7 Salvemini to Doris Pullen, Life Magazine, undated telegram. For a similar judgement on the flaws in Salvemini's analysis of post-war Italy see Gian Giacomo Migone (2009, 177–92).