ABSALOM

ROGER ABSALOM, Historian of Modern Italy

Roger Absalom is Hon Research Fellow in the Cultural Research Institute at Sheffield Hallam University. His work as a historian has been in the field of history of contemporary Italy, with particular reference to the period of the Second World War and the post-war reconstruction. His principal works deal with Allied military government, the Italian Resistance, and the socio-cultural interactions between Italian peasants and British ex-prisoners of war in the aftermath of the surrender of Italy in September 1943. His current research projects are listed at the end of this web document.

He would welcome enquiries (preferably via e-mail addressed to mail@absalom.net) about his past and current work. Some of his articles listed below are available on request.

Roger Absalom è vissuto in Italia negli anni ’50 e poi, tornato in Inghilterra, insegnava lingua letteratura e storia italiane prima a Cambridge, poi a Sheffield. Attualmente si dedica a ricerche storiche, sempre in seno al Cultural Research Institute della Sheffield Hallam University. Come storico si interessa soprattutto alla storia italiana nel periodo della Seconda Guerra Mondiale e della ricostruzione postbellica. Le sue attuali ricerche sono riassunte alla fine di questo documento.

Egli sarebbe interessato a ricevere commenti e domande (preferibilmente via e-mail indirizzato a mail@absalom.net) sulle sue opere. Alcuni articoli tra quelli sottoelencati sono disponibili digitalizzati dietro apposita richiesta.

Curriculum vitae

Personal

Addresses: 5, Edale Mill, UK-Hope Valley S33 7ZE

Cultural Research Institute, Sheffield Hallam University, Collegiate Crescent, Sheffield S10 2BP

Telephone: home (01433) 670286

Fax (01433) 670309

Academic experience:

1960-1973 Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Principal Lecturer in Modern Languages and History, Anglia Polytechnic University

1973- Head of Department of Modern Languages; Dean of Faculty of Humanities; Reader in Italian Studies, Hon. Research Fellow in Italian History, Sheffield Hallam University

1990- Corresponding member of the Accademia toscana di scienze e lettere "La Colombaria"

Administrative experience:

1989-1993 Consultant at ERASMUS Bureau of the European Commission (1989-1990) and and Senior Consultant at EC TEMPUS Office (1990-1993)

1994-1995 Reporting Assessor for Higher Education Funding Council for England (part-time)

Previous extracurricular appointments:

1975-1981 Member of CNAA Languages Board

1978-1981 Vice-Chairman of CNAA Languages Board

1978-1982 Member of Modern Languages Panel, Business Education Council

1979-1982 Chairman of Standing Conference of Heads of Modern Languages (SCHML)

Principal Research Fields

* The Italian Resistance Movement and the Allies 1943-45

* Allied military administration of Italy 1943-45

* Socialism and nationalism in the Italian Labour Movement

* The Italian peasantry in the crisis of 1943-1948

* International higher education cooperation

Grants for research

Visiting Scholar, Woodrow Wilson Center, Washington DC (1982)

British Academy Grant to cover 3 months research at National Archives, Washington DC (1983)

Krieble-Delmas Foundation grant to cover 1 month oral history field work in Italy (1984)

Australian War Memorial grant to cover 2 months research in Australian archives (1988)

Fondazione Carima, Macerata Italy, grant to fund 18 months archival research in London & Washington

Publications

Books on historical subjects

Mussolini and the rise of Italian Fascism, Methuen, 1969

France 1968: the May Events, Longman, 1970

Gli Alleati e la ricostruzione in Toscana (1944-45) Documenti anglo-americani, Vol. I, Leo S Olschki, Florence 1988

A Strange Alliance. Aspects of escape and survival in Italy 1943-45, Leo S Olschki, Florence, 1991

Italy since 1800. A nation in the balance?, Longman, London & New York, 1995

Perugia liberata. Documenti anglo-americani sull’occupazione alleata di Perugia 1944-1945, Leo S Olschki, Florence, 2001.

Gli Alleati e la ricostruzione in Toscana (1944-45) Documenti anglo-americani, Vol. II, Leo S Olschki, Florence, 2001.

Translations

Giacomo Becattini, Il bruco e la farfalla (Prato in a changing world) (1954-1993), Le Monnier, Florence, December 2001.

Giacomo Becattini, Alfred Marshall and Victorian economics, industry and character, (to be published in 2004)

Principal Articles

L'amministrazione militare alleata e la ricostruzione a Firenze 1944-45, in E Rotelli (Ed.), La ricostruzione in Toscana dal CLN ai partiti, Bologna 1980

Contadini italiani ed ex prigionieri alleati 1943-45: per una storia di sopravvivenze, Italia contemporanea, 140, 1980

Un mondo che scompare: i contadini di Nuto Revelli, Passato e Presente, 6, 1984

Contadini ed ex prigionieri alleati nel pistoiese 1943-44, Farestoria, IV, 1, 1985

Il mondo contadino e l'incontro con la guerra 1943-45, Passato e Presente, 8, 1985

Ex prigionieri alleati e assistenza popolare nella zona della Linea Gotica 1943-44, in G Rochat et al (Eds), Linea Gotica, Milano, 1986

Il mondo contadino in Toscana e l'incontro con la guerra 1943-45: uno spunto interpretativo, Il Ponte, XLII, 2, 1986

Ci fu una resistenza? L'Italia e gli alleati 1943-45, Farestoria, VI, 1-2, 1987

Prato and the Allies 1943-45, Italian Studies, XLII, 1987

Terre desiderate, terre sognate: alcuni fattori economici e no nel comportamento politico degli ex mezzadri, Annali Cervi, VIII, 1986

Tre missioni inglesi. Gli alleati nell'aretino prima della liberazione: alcuni spunti documentari e una proposta di lettura, Rivista di storia contemporanea, 3, 1988

A resistance to Resistance? The Italian peasant in history 1943-1948, in A D Thompson (Ed), Moving in Measure. Essays in honour of Professor Brian Moloney, Hull UP, 1989

"Another crack at Jerry": Australian escapers in Italy 1943-45, Journal of the Australian War Memorial, 17, Spring, 1989

"Practical rather than Declamatory Co-operation": ERASMUS in 1990, an appraisal, European Journal of Education, Vol. 25, N°.1, 1990

Rigidity and change in staffing structures in higher education in Europe (with C Sutton), Higher Education Management, 2(2), 1990

Una crisi dell'Europa delle nazioni?, in L'Europa delle città, supplemento al No. 8-9, agosto-settembre 1990, de Il Ponte, Vallecchi Editore, Firenze, 1990

Il rovescio della medaglia: prigionieri di guerra alleati in mano italiana, in Bruna Micheletti; Pier Paolo Poggio (Eds.), L'Italia in guerra 1940-43, Annali della Fondazione Micheletti, 5, 1990-91, Brescia, pp.1007-1018

The Development of Effective Staffing Structures (with C Sutton), in Higher Education, European Journal of Education, Vol 27, N° 1/2, 1992

'Cristo si è fermato lungo la strada': prigionieri di guerra alleati evasi in Abruzzo, in Costantino Felice (Ed.) Atti del Convegno internazionale di studi "La guerra sul Sangro: eserciti e popolazione in Abruzzo 1943-44, Franco Angeli, Milan, 1993

Hiding History: the Allies, the Resistance, and others in occupied Italy 1943-1945, in The Historical Journal, 37, I (1994)

Il gioco delle parti: illusioni e delusioni italiane e alleate nel 1943, in 1943 Nasce la Resistenza, Atti del Convegno Internazionale promosso dal Comune di Piombino e dall'Istituto storico della Resistenza in Toscana, Piombino, 22-23 April, 1994, Aktis Editrice, Piombino, 1995.

Peasant Memory and the Italian Resistance, 1943-1945, in R.J.B. Bosworth; Patrizia Dogliani (eds.), Italian Fascism. History, Memory and Representation, Macmillan Press Ltd/St Martin's Press, Basingstoke and New York, 1999.

Une échappée dans l'histoire: paysans italiens et prisonniers de guerre alliés dans la Résistance (1943-1944), in Jean-Marie Guillon; Robert Mencherini (eds.) La Résistance et les Européens du Sud, L'Harmattan, Paris and Montréal, 1999.

Il governo militare alleato nell'Italia Centrale, in R Covino, (ed), Dal Conflitto alla Libertà. L'Umbria verso la ricostruzione, Istituto storico dell'Umbria contemporanea/Editoriale Umbra, Perugia, 1999

Le stragi nazifasciste in Toscana 1943-1945. Guida agli archivi. Le fonti britanniche, Regione Toscana, 2003

Memories of occupations, essay contributed to festschrift for Prof. A.D. Thompson of the University of Hull, published by Hull University Press in September 2001

Proceedings of Conference, Giornata di Uguccione, Fondazione “Uguccione Ranieri di Sorbello”, Perugia, 11 January 1997: ‘Uguccione’s involvement with the Allied forces in Italy, October 1943-June 1945: A FORK in pursuit of ELKS’

Review article: ‘Existing in history: Italy's devious path from defeat to recovery’, in The Historical Journal, 39, I (1997)

Proceedings of Colloque, La Résistance et les Européens du Sud, 20-22 March 1997, University of Provence: ‘Escaping into History: Italian Peasants and Allied Prisoners-of-war in the Resistenza 1943-44

Proceedings of Seminario, Identità e storia della Repubblica – Per una politica della memoria nell’Italia d’oggi: ‘British archives and records relating to war crimes committed in Italy 1943-1945’

Proceedings of Conference, Sex, Lies and Politics? The State of Contemporary Italy, University of Melbourne, 4-6 July 1997: ‘Roots and Routes of Italian Identities’

Paper presented at 11^th Biennial Conference of Australasian Association of European Historians, Universith of Adelaide, 8-11 July 1997: ‘Bossi and after’

Vanzetti Lecture, University of Perth, 14 July 1997: ‘The Armed Resistance in Italy 1943-1945: History and Mystery’

Disaster and the Millennium, paper to Conference ‘Disastro! Disasters in Italy since 1860: culture, politics and society’, Yale University, 18-19 July 1999

'Memories of occupations: Perugia Anno Zero - Living with enemies and Allies', paper to 12th Biennial Conference of Australasian Association of European Historians, University of Western Australia, 5-9 July 1999

Le vie della salvezza degli ex-prigionieri alleati tra santuari, assistenza popolare e resistenza nel Piemonte, paper to Convegno franco-italiano-svizzero Turin, 7-9 May 2001

Local holocausts: history and historiography of the ‘divided memory’ of massacres in Tuscany, 1943-45, paper to 13th Biennial Conference of Australasian Association of European Historians, University of Auckland, 9-13 July 2001

The Italian Resistance and its Others, paper to Second Biennial Conference of the Australian Centre for Italian Studies (ACIS), University of Western Australia, 3-5 July 2003.

The Italian Resistance and its Others, paper to Second Biennial Conference of the Australian Centre for Italian Studies (ACIS), University of Western Australia, 3-5 July 2003.

Prisoners on the run and the contadini in occupied Italy 1943-1945, Everyone’s War, V, 3, 2003

Il contributo del movimento di Resistenza alla campagna militare alleata nell’Italia centrale maggio-settembre 1944, paper to Conference “Militari Alleati, Alleati e Resistenza dopo l’8 settembre 1943: l’Italia centrale e la provincia di Perugia”, Deruta, 5 March 2004

La ‘strana alleanza’ tra italiani e alleati, Paper to conference “Il sentiero della libertà”, Sulmona, 26 April 2004

La strategia alleata sul fronte adriatico, Paper to conference “1944-2004. La guerra sul fronte adriatico e la battaglia di Ancona », Ancona, 21 May 2004

Introduzione, in Janet Dethick, La battaglia dimenticata. Giugno-luglio 1944, Uguccione Ranieri di Sorbello Foundation, Perugia, 2004.

Introduzione a ‘Fonti conservate nel Regno Unito’, in Paola Carocci et al., Le stragi nazifasciste in Toscana 1943-45. 2. Guida alle fonti archivistiche. Gli archivi italiani e alleati, RegioneToscana/Carocci editore, Roma, 2004, pp.109-216..

Elenco delle fonti censite, in ibid, pp. 217-222.

Current research involvements

o Member of the Comitato scientifico appointed by the Presidenza della Regione Toscana to oversee a programme of research aimed at preserving the memory of crimes against humanity committed in Tuscany between 1943 and 1945, with particular responsibility for identifying the pertinent records held in British archives at the Public Record Office and producing a reasoned catalogue thereof.

o In collaboration with media expert Carol Jefferson-Davies, I am currently carrying out research towards a photographic history of Liberation in Italy 1943-1945. The work to date has been the basis for two public exhibitons in Italy so far and others are being negotiated in UK. It is hoped that a book proposal will be ready for publishers by mid-2005. The research is supported by the Uguccione Ranieri di Sorbello Foundation of Perugia.

o The photographic history project has yielded a series of exhibitions under the general title of Chiaroscuri: Faces of Liberation: at the Istituto Piemontese della Resistenza e della Storia contemporanea in Turin, and in Perugia at the the Uguccione Ranieri di Sorbello Foundation.