The Art of Persuasion: Political Communication in Italy from 1945 to the 1990s

An attempt at exploring the variety of means in which political information has been conveyed in Italy, from the early post-war period to a still unsettled situation in which political discourse takes second place to style, image and soundbite. Written by an international team of scholars representing a range of disciplines, the volume examines both official party-led forms of communication (cinema, government newreel, the press, rituals, election broadcasts) and the more informal, spontaneous and/or clandestine forms of communication mostly originating from social movements, pressure groups and other organizations outside the party system (satire, political songs, sartorial styles, terrorism). The book also features a chronology of political, economic and cultural events, which should make it accessible not only to students and schlars but to the general reader interested in contemporary Italy.