Discovering politics: action and recollection in the first mazzinian generation

The chapter (Arisi Rota: section 1, 2, 4; Balzani: section 3) investigates youth's political engagement in the 1830s and the interaction between memory and political emotions in a sample of mid-level and rank-and-file Mazzinians. The dynamics of politicization in the making as well as those of memory in the making are considered with the help of first hand sources (letters, journals, early and late memories) confronted with sociological literature on the concept of political generation.