Introduction: A View of the Intellectual Biography
The Typewriter Company
From Ivrea to Champfèr
Organized Ideas for the Future
2
Gaetano Salvemini and the United States of America
Renewing National Politics
The Political Journalist Alef
Diogenes’ Political Views
The End of the Journalistic Experience
New York and Filippo Turati
3
Among Antifascists and Secret Services
The Memorandum
Office of Strategic Services Agent
Thinking in Switzerland
4
Self-Government in Constitutional Projects
Communities
Actual Self-Government
The Socialist Party
Other Political Orientations
Olivetti’s Plan and the Constituent Assembly
5
A New Political Movement?
Christian-Social Party to Community Movement
October 28, 1947
Ends and End of Politics
New Times New Methods
6
The Misunderstood Legacy
Communities and Constitution
The Italian Historiography
Political Ideologies
In Search of Polity
Bibliography
Index
Davide Cadeddu is Associate Professor of History of Political Theory at the University of Milan, Italy. He is author of Reimagining Democracy: On the Political Project of Adriano Olivetti (Springer, 2012) and editor of several Olivetti’s books, such as L’ordine politico delle Comunità (Edizioni di Comunità, 2021) and Società Stato Comunità (Edizioni di Comunità, 2021).
This book examines the historical process that led to the foundation of the Italian Republic and its constitution, viewed through the personal experiences and political reflections of Adriano Olivetti (between 1919 and 1960), general manager and president of the well-known typewriter manufacturer “Ing. C. Olivetti & C.” An unbroken line of reasoning linked his maturing political reflections during the two post-war periods. The historical context of the 1950s did not prove to be very propitious, but the guidelines dispersed throughout the Italian cultural and political world from the movement that Olivetti founded were certainly seminal – generating a legacy of ideas that has only in part been recognized. What makes this study distinctive is the original approach to reading the history of Italy through Adriano Olivetti’s eyes and thoughts, far from the more common Christian Democratic or Communist perspective of those years. It is simply another view of what the Italian Republic could be and was not.
Davide Cadeddu is Associate Professor of History of Political Theory at the University of Milan, Italy. He is author of Reimagining Democracy: On the Political Project of Adriano Olivetti (Springer, 2012) and editor of several Olivetti’s books, such as L’ordine politico delle Comunità (Edizioni di Comunità, 2021) and Società Stato Comunità (Edizioni di Comunità, 2021).