'Weaving together political, social, economic and cultural strands in an extremely rich and engaging fashion, Bosworth shows the extent to which Venice continued to be an active player in the broader history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This is a beautifully written, stimulating and constantly entertaining book.' - Christopher Duggan, author of Fascist Voices: An Intimate History of Mussolini's Italy 'Bosworth brings a fresh eye to Venice's history, telling us lots that we didn't know already and providing a masterly overview allied with numerous fascinating details. The account is provocative at times - painting a picture of a city which at the same time seems unaffected by history, but that was also profoundly altered by the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and the forces which have marked the last 150 years or so of this remarkable but troubled place.' - John Foot, author of Modern Italy '[ Italian Venice ] is a work far more colourful and enjoyable than the usual dust-dry tomes on Venice. . .Bosworth has previously published exemplary works on Mussolini and on Rome, and this one on the real, living Venice is equally fascinating./i>
Tobias Jones The Sunday Times (08/17/2014) 'This is unquestionably one of the boldest approaches to the realities of modern Venice to have appeared in recent years./i>
Jonathan Keates Literary Review (08/01/2014) '[This] highly readable book skilfully captures detail at a human scale while surveying two centuries of political, social, economic and cultural history. It is also a history book with a contemporary mission, seeking to contribute to current debates about how Venice might best live in the 21st century./i>
Kate Ferris THES (08/14/2014) '. . . Bosworth, a subtle and stylish historian, believes that the best way to keep Venice alive (and authentic) is to embrace its unofficial histories.' His stimulating book decodes monuments that are not to be found in the tourist guides but which are nonetheless emblematic of a city that 'is washed by multiple pasts enjoying their historians or summoning them to write another telling story.''
Christopher Silvester, The Financial Times
Christopher Silvester The Financial Times (08/23/2014) 'RJB Bosworth, a historian who has previously specialised in Italian fascism, does superlatively well to write about a more post-Renaissance and les-documented Serenissima - the one sacked by Napoleon, who stripped the churches and galleries of their Titians, Tintorettos, Bellinis and Carpaccios; the belle-epoque playground of the Lido, where the Grand Hotel des Bains, the setting for Thomas Mann's novella (and the Dirk Bogarde film), was opened in 1900; and the city that spent time under Austrian rule, to whom we can give credit for the coffee houses and pastries./i>
Roger Lewis The Times (08/23/2014) '. . .Bosworth's book often makes for lively and informative reading. He writes very well, and he lays before us a cornucopia of colourful incidents and characters, gleaned from a thorough scouring of newspapers, memoirs, and other sources./i>
Theodore K Rabb TLS (10/24/2014)