Scenes from a Roman Century

1914 — 2024

David Lane, David Lane

• Publisher: Hurst Publishers
• Year: 2025
• Print ISBN: 9781805262930
• eBook ISBN: 9781805265054
• Edition: 0
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Italian History
• Index: History

Hollywood film stars, fascist assassins. Bombs on San Lorenzo, la dolce vita on Via Veneto. Baroque fountains, umbrella pines. Urban planning, unregulated house-building. After half a century living in Rome, David Lane turns his eye on events and streetscapes in the Eternal City over the past 100 years.

Scenes from a Roman Century begins with the 1924 murder of Giacomo Matteotti—the beginning of the end for interwar democracy—and ends with the organised crime and political violence of our own era. It sketches Rome’s growth under Mussolini’s dictatorship, and its fortunes during the Second World War; the economic miracle of the post-war decades; and Rome’s latest transformations through the turn of the millennium.

Lane sends readers meandering down the alleys, out towards the suburbs and to stand before the monumental architecture, capturing cultural and political moments from Rome’s past and present. He explores fascism’s material legacy across the city, terrorism and political extremism on the right and left, and the struggle to manage economic growth’s burdens—ugly urban sprawl, and the crush of mass tourism in the historic centre. As pilgrims descend for the 2025 jubilee declared by Pope Francis, what is next for this ever-changing city of history?

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Note
• Introduction: Words about Rome
• Part One The Fascist Ventennio 1924–1944
• Part Two Post-Fascism’s Chiaroscuro Decades 1945–2024
• Afterword: Steps across the Past
• Index
• Back Cover