Home of the Renaissance and Baroque style, Italy has always been a center of culture. In modern Italy, pride in cultural distinctiveness is strong—qualities found in Tuscany, Rome, Sicily, Venice, and other regions. Summarizing the most important events in Italian history from the founding of Rome and the unification of the country to the realities of the Fascist regime in the first half of the twentieth century and beyond—up to the present day—renowned British historian Jeremy Black examines the origins of Italians’ cultural influence on the entire world, as well as the causes and consequences of political events and the divisions that still exist today.