This unique collection of essays provides a re-evaluation of the term 'Atlantic, ' by placing at the core of the debate on republicanism in the early modern age the link between continental Europe and America, rather than assuming British political culture as having been widely representative of Europe as a whole

With Italy under Napoleonic rule at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the antiquarian topic of anti-romanism became a pillar of the Italian nation-building process and, in turn, was used against the dominant French culture. The history of the Italian nation predating the Roman Empire supported the idea of an Italian cultural primacy and proved crucial in the creation of modern Italian nationalism. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, Italian studies of Roman history would drape a dark veil over the earliest history of Italy while Fascism openly claimed the legacy of the Roman...