Speaker: Keith Lowe
Topic: Naples at War and the Creation of Modern Italy
Venue: Vinson Building
Time: 14:00-15:00 Sunday 15 September
Talk Summary:
The story of the liberation of Naples is one of the most morally ambiguous moments in the history of the Second World War. Countless cities in Europe and Asia were destroyed during the conflict, and Naples was one such city. What exactly happened when the scourge of conflict lashed down upon the beautiful, ancient and troubled city that nestles in the shade of Vesuvius, and, crucially, what happened next? The aftermath of the Second World War was often just as dramatic, exhilarating and traumatic as the war itself; and yet it is rarely written about by historians, and almost never acknowledged in our public memory of the war.
Keith Lowe is the author of several major works of history. His first book, Inferno, was a critically-acclaimed study of the bombing of Hamburg in 1943. His second book, Savage Continent, became a Sunday Times bestseller, and went on to win both the Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History and Italy’s national Cherasco History Prize. The Fear and the Freedom is an intimate history of the long-term consequences of the Second World War, and the shadow that it still casts over our lives today. It was shortlisted for the Historical Writers’ Association Non-fiction Crown, and has been adapted as a 12-part radio series in the Czech Republic. His latest book is Naples 1944 and the Making of Post-war Italy (William Collins)..