Gaetano Salvemini
| Gaetano Salvemini | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies | |
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In office December 1, 1919 – April 7, 1921 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
September 8, 1873 Molfetta, Apulia (Italy) |
| Died | September 6, 1957 (aged 83) Sorrento, Italy |
| Political party | Italian Socialist Party |
| Profession | Historian, writer |
Gaetano Salvemini (Italian pronunciation: [ɡaeˈtano salˈvɛmini]; September 8, 1873 – September 6, 1957) was an Italian anti-fascist politician, historian and writer. Born in a family of modest means, he became an acclaimed historian both in Italy and abroad, in particular in the United States, after he was forced into exile by Mussolini's Fascist regime.
Initially engaging with the Italian Socialist Party, he later adhered to an independent humanitarian socialism, while maintaining a commitment to radical political and social reform throughout his life. Salvemini offered significant leadership to political refugees in the United States. His prolific writings shaped the attitudes of U.S. policymakers during and after the Second World War. His transatlantic exile experience endowed him with new insights and a fresh perspective to explain the rise of fascism, while shaping the memory of the war and political life in Italy after 1945. He advocated a third way between Communists and Christian Democracy for post-war Italy.
Salvemini was born in the town of Molfetta, in Apulia in the poor south of Italy, in an extended family of farmers and fishermen of modest means. His father, Ilarione Salvemini, was a carabiniere and part-time teacher. He had been a radical republican who had fought as a Red Shirt following Giuseppe Garibaldi in his fight for Italian unification. His mother Emanuela (née Turtur) was a socialist. His parents' political leanings as well as the poverty of the region, shaped his own political and social ideals throughout his life.
He was admitted at the University of Florence, where he met mostly students of northern Italy and engaged with young socialists was introduced to Marxism (which he would revise critically later), the ideas of Carlo Cattaneo and the Italian socialist Filippo Turati's journal Critica Sociale, as well as his first wife Maria Minervini. After completing his studies in Florence in 1894, his historical studies on medieval Florence, the French Revolution and Giuseppe Mazzini established him as an acclaimed historian.
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