Garibaldi: Invention of a Hero

"Why this biography of Garibaldi is actually quite easy to answer. This is an uncommon biography. It is a biography of Garibaldi, but it does not intend to recount all the details of his life, because we already know those from the biographies of Garibaldi written in the 19th century and throughout the 20th century. We know almost all that there is to know about Garibaldi’s life. Support Five Books Five Books interviews are expensive to produce. If you're enjoying this interview, please support us by donating a small amount . What Lucy Riall is interested in is the construction of the myth of Garibaldi and how Garibaldi himself was not only a passive recipient of this mythical construction, but also played an active part in the construction of his public persona and how a cult of celebrity was created around him. This is something that has not been done before. In this sense, Lucy Riall’s book is very innovative. It really contributes to the broader conversation regarding the Risorgimento, regarding celebrity culture, and the Risorgimento and the 19th century in general, because Garibaldi was not only an Italian figure. He was famous in Italy as the ‘ eroe dei due mondi’ —hero of two worlds—because he was also a very popular figure in South America. So he’s a truly global protagonist. Yes, exactly. Another important contribution of Riall’s book is that, through the analysis of the construction of the myth of Garibaldi, it really shows something about the evolution of what we might call ‘mass culture’ during the 19th century and how the evolution of the media provided the means for the construction of this global myth of Garibaldi. This is also why I’ve chosen this book over a biography of Mazzini or Cavour, because I don’t think we have an equally innovative work on these other two figures. It’s not because I think Garibaldi is more important than Mazzini or Cavour. The reason I chose this book is related to the specific characteristics of Riall’s work. He became a hero and a very well-known figure and celebrity well before then. He started off as a young Mazzinian and then had to go into exile, so there’s a link there with Isabella’s book, although Garibaldi’s a very different type of figure from the ones Isabella analyses in his research. At the outset, the myth of Garibaldi was started, fuelled and organised by Mazzini himself. Mazzini was strategic—at least at the beginning—about the construction of this myth of Garibaldi. It would not have been successful had he not become very famous for his actions in South America. That is where he learned how to fight and became popular for his military successes and abilities. It was there and then that he became the well-known Romantic figure that we can all picture in our minds. That was all well before the Roman question and the Expedition of the Thousand in 1860. Mainly, and in Brazil before that. He becomes this popular hero because he is seen as someone who fights on behalf of the people. And, at the very beginning, he is also a republican; he starts off as a Mazzinian, but that changes in the 1850s. Yes. In practical terms that’s exactly what happens. According to Lucy Riall, he’s actually also quite a skilled politician, which goes a bit against the traditional image that we have of Garibaldi as someone who was not particularly cultivated, not an intellectual, for sure, or even a deep thinker, and not a true politician. Lucy Riall doesn’t claim that he was the best politician or diplomat, but she asserts that he showed considerable ability in Sicily and southern Italy in the way in which, for example, he dealt with the local Catholic Church, and in the way he managed his own image. That’s another interesting point made by the book. He was very active in the construction of his own public persona and his public image. As Lucy Riall shows, he fuelled this kind of worship that that was created around his figure. He was sometimes portrayed as a demi-god. There is a very striking image that is used both by Riall and by Banti, in which Garibaldi is portrayed as Christ—of course his physical features helped with that. It’s not. It is an interesting question, but I’m not sure I have a good answer. He’s still studied in Italian schools, but the curriculum in Italian schools still portrays the unification of the country in quite a traditional way, with a central role for the fathers of the nation—Cavour, Mazzini, Garibaldi and King Victor Emmanuel II. To my knowledge, and colleagues may contradict me here, there has not been much innovation in that department. So anyone who has studied in an Italian school will know, at least roughly, who Garibaldi was. But, I’m afraid, that’s about it. I don’t think he is considered an exciting figure in Italy nowadays and there’s not much enthusiasm for him. Yes, he’s very often on horseback. He also had these very distinctive and easily recognizable clothes, with the hat and the poncho. I am sure he didn’t always dress like that, but this was part of the construction of his image at the time and it has remained in the posthumous representations of him. Exactly."