In recent decades, Italy has been struck by a wave of xenophobic nationalism. With slogans like “Italians First!” (as per Matteo Salvini’s anti-immigrant Lega) or “Let’s Defend Italy!” (a slogan of Giorgia Meloni’s post-fascist Fratelli d’Italia), right-populist forces have succeeded in repoliticizing national belonging. Now cast in ethnocultural terms, Italian identity is today brandished against various “outside enemies,” from the European Union to migrants.

It’s worth emphasizing how new this debate really is to Italy. Indeed, while in postwar decades a shared sense of belonging to a national community was doubtless one part of popular consciousness, references to this identity were relatively marginal to shaping political conflict. Religion and social class had much more impact: tellingly, these were the identities at the core of the country’s two biggest parties from 1945 till the early 1990s, i.e., the Christian Democracy (DC) and the Italian Communist Party (PCI).

Writers on the Left have, in turn, sought to grapple with this sea change in the country’s political life. Francesco Filippi’s recent volume Italians First! (Okay, But Which?) is but one example of this trend, also drawing on the arguments made in a 2019 book by Roman author Christian Raimo, strikingly titled “Against Italian Identity” (Contro l’identità italiana). This latter is notable for its concise but effective historical reconstruction of the resurgence of Italian nationalism, showing how today’s “Italian identity” and the patriotism derived from it are not eternal facts but the result of conscious political choices. Yet, in its efforts to provide a left-wing response to this harshened nationalism, Raimo’s Against Italian Identity also comes across more difficult problems.