Lucy Riall is an Irish historian. She was a professor of history at

Birkbeck, University of London Birkbeck, University of London (formally Birkbeck College, University of London), is a Public university, public research university located in London, England, and a constituent college, member institution of the University of London. Establ ...

, and is currently a professor in the Department of History and Civilisation at the

European University Institute The European University Institute (EUI) is an international postgraduate and post-doctoral research-intensive university and an intergovernmental organisation with juridical personality, established by its founding member states to contribu ...

in Florence.

Biography

Riall studied at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

and the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. She was a lecturer in Modern European history at the

University of Essex The University of Essex is a public university, public research university in Essex, England. Established by royal charter in 1965, it is one of the original plate glass university, plate glass universities. The university comprises three camp ...

before moving to Birkbeck. Since 2004 she has been editor of the journal ''European History Quarterly''. Among her awards are a visiting professorship at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris and a senior fellowship at the University of Freiburg's Institute of Advanced Study. One of the leading experts on modern Italy, Riall has written on nineteenth-century state-formation and

nationalism Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, I ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

and

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

. Several of her books treat the history of the

Risorgimento The unification of Italy ( ), also known as the Risorgimento (; ), was the 19th century political and social movement that in 1861 ended in the annexation of various states of the Italian peninsula and its outlying isles to the Kingdom of ...

; ''Garibaldi: Invention of a Hero'' (2007) examined the popular cult of

Giuseppe Garibaldi Giuseppe Maria Garibaldi ( , ;In his native Ligurian language, he is known as (). In his particular Niçard dialect of Ligurian, he was known as () or (). 4 July 1807 – 2 June 1882) was an Italian general, revolutionary and republican. H ...

as a global cultural phenomenon.Reviews: Roland Sart
H-Net review
October 2007; David Gilmou
"The lion or the donkey?"
, ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British political and cultural news magazine. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving magazine in the world. ''The Spectator'' is politically conservative, and its principal subject a ...

'', 10 May 2007; Tim Parks
"The Insurgent: Garibaldi and his enemies"
''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'', 9 July 2007; Alexander Still
"The Hero Machine"
''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' (often abbreviated as ''TNR'') is an American magazine focused on domestic politics, news, culture, and the arts from a left-wing perspective. It publishes ten print magazines a year and a daily online platform. ''The New Y ...

'', 16 August 2007 Riall speaks fluent Italian and she appears frequently on Italian TV and radio (RAI) as well as on the BBC.

Works

*''The Italian Risorgimento: State, Society, and National Unification'', Routledge, 1994. *''Sicily and the Unification of Italy: Liberal Policy and Local Power, 1859-1866'', Oxford University Press, 1998. *(ed. with David Laven) ''Napoleon's Legacy: Problems of Government in Restoration Europe'', Berg, 2000. *''Garibaldi: Invention of a Hero'', Yale University Press, 2007 (Italian translation, Laterza, 2007). *''Risorgimento: The History of Italy from Napoleon to Nation State'', Palgrave Macmillan, 2009 (Italian translation, Donzelli 2009). *"Martyr Cults in Nineteenth-Century Italy," ''The Journal of Modern History'' Vol. 82, No. 2, June 2010. *''Under the Volcano: Revolution in a Sicilian Town'', Oxford University Press, 2013.

References

External links

EUI profileBirkbeck homepageGaribaldi: the patriot as global hero

Alumni of the London School of Economics Alumni of the University of Cambridge Historians of Italy Living people Year of birth missing (living people) {{UK-historian-stub