An Aspects of History Best Book of the Year; An Engelsberg Ideas Best Book of the Year

‘A rigorous, myth-busting look at the city’s chaotic recovery in the wake of war and fascism’ - Financial Times

This is the first major history of wartime Naples to appear in English. It fills a significant gap in British and American historiography of the war and shares a number of new stories - some of them truly shocking - that have not been published in any language to date.

When the Allies arrived in late 1943, Naples had already undergone a brutal German occupation and experienced reprisals from the city’s heroic resistance and uprisings. This did not shield it from relentless Allied bombing. The city was in collapse with widespread misery and hardship. Criminal gangs thrived, as did typhus, hunger, and explosive prices on the black market. Many women were forced into casual prostitution just to acquire food. And then Vesuvius erupted.

Lowe’s gripping and powerful book places Naples at the heart of Italian history. What happened in this city was not merely a sideshow to greater events unfolding further north, but central to the country’s overall story. Neapolitans resisted fascism just like the Florentines, Bolognese, and Milanese. They suffered as much as the northerners and also longed for constitutional renewal. The heroic sacrifice that played out in Naples foreshadowed what would later happen across Italy - as did the compromises and corruption of ideals that came with Allied incorporation.

Naples 1944 is original and human history at its best and a book that shows that Neapolitan history is Italian history.

Pages: 400, Dimensions: 15.3x15.3cm