Alexander Reid Ross

Years of Lead Pod

History EN ↓ 119 episodes

This is a podcast about the period of political violence that gripped Italy between 1967-1982, focusing on stories about its key protagonists and defining events. We'll have interviews with guests who are experts in the subject and/or were there at the time. It's planned as a limited series that moves in roughly chronological order with some bonus episodes for subscribers.

Author

Alexander Reid Ross

Episodes

The PCI and the Historic Compromise, ft. David Broder 08.02.2023 1:12:46

David Broder is Jacobin ’s Europe editor and a prolific historian of French and Italian communism. Most recently, he's authored Mussolini's Grandchildren and First They Took Rome , about the rise of the Fratelli d'Italia and the Lega, respectively, and he is the translator of such works as Mario Tronti's Workers and Capital and Jean Paul Sartre's What Is Subjectivity , among others.

Origins of Autonomia, pt. 4: Veneto, workerism and the environment 02.02.2023 45:27

References Anonymous, Porto Marghera—The Last Firebrands , https://files.libcom.org/files/firebrands_booklet_2_horizontal.pdf ; https://en.labournet.tv/porto-marghera-last-firebrands Francesca Cadel, "Power and Sexuality in Pasolini's Petrolio," The Power of Disturbance: Elsa Morante's Aracoeli , Manuele Gragnolati, Sara Fortuna, eds. London: Legenda, 2009. Giacomo Despali, Piero Despali, Gli auto...

The Origins of Autonomia, pt. 3: Red Flags over Fiatnam 26.01.2023 28:53

References Pino Casamassima, Gli irriducibili. Storie di brigatisti mai pentiti. Bari: Laterza, 2012. Marco Clementi, Paolo Persichetti, Elisa Santalena , Brigate rosse Dalle fabbriche alla «campagna di primavera» . Roma: DeriveApprodi, 2017. Renato Curcio, Mario Scialoja, A viso aperto . Milano: Mondadori, 1993. Chicco Galmozzi. Figli dell'officina. Da Lotta continua a Prima linea: le origini e l...

Performing Clandestine Abortions, Organizing Security for Marches, and Getting Approached by the Red Brigades — Inside the 1970s Women's Movement with Lotta Continua Cofounder Vicky Franzinetti 19.01.2023 54:23

A wide ranging interview with Lotta continua cofounder Vicky Franzinetti about her experiences in the women's movement and some of the internal conflict over the armed struggle that happened in the extraparliamentary left during the 1970s.

The Origins of Autonomia, pt. 2: Milan, ft. Michael Hardt 13.01.2023 42:06

References Commissione Parlamentare di Inchiesta sul Rapimento e Sulla Morte di Aldo Moro, Reperimento di documentazione relativa ai traffici di armi tra la Svizzera e l'Italia nei primi anni 70 (incarico deliberato nell'ufficio di presidenza del 26.01.2017). February 15, 2017. Phil Edwards. "More work! Less pay!": Rebellion and repression in Italy, 1972–77 . Manchester University Press, 2013. Gru...

The Origins of Autonomia, pt. 1: Rome, ft. Steve Wright 06.01.2023 53:44

Works cited Phil Edwards. "More work! Less pay!": Rebellion and repression in Italy, 1972–77 . Manchester University Press, 2013. Giorgio Ferrari, Gian Marco D'Ubaldo. Gli autonomi vol. 4. L'Autonomia operaia romana , Roma: DeriveApprodi, 2017. Steve Wright. Storming Heaven: Class Composition and Struggle in Italian Autonomist Marxism . Pluto Press, 2017. Steve Wright. The Weight of the Printed Wo...

Unlocked: La banda "XXII ottobre": The Armed Group that Started the Years of Lead 31.12.2022 54:46

Works Cited Donatella Alfonso. Animali di periferia. Le origini del terrorismo tra Golpe e Resistenza tradita. La storia inedita della Banda XXII. Rome: Castelvecchi 2012. Giuseppe Baiocchi e Marco Volpati, Walter Tobagi: Giornalista, Associazione lombarda dei giornalisti: Milan, 2005. Baruda, “Il Gruppo 22 ottobre e la morte di Floris,” baruda, March 26, 2011, https://baruda.net/tag/sergio-gadoll...

Unlocked: "I'll Report Them Tomorrow": The Rape of Franca Rame 15.12.2022 32:26

CW: I read parts of Rame's own narrative of sexual violence in the episode. Adnkronos, "Violenze sessuali: Angelo Angeli, nel caso Franca Rame non c'entro," April 29, 2006, https://www1-adnkronos-com.translate.goog/Archivio/AdnAgenzia/2006/08/29/Cronaca/VIOLENZE-SESSUALI-ANGELO-ANGELI-NEL-CASO-FRANCA-RAME-NON-CENTRO_083947.php Luciana D'Arcangeli, " Lo Stupro by Franca Rame: Political Violence and...

Unlocked: The Fashion Episode, ft. Emanuela Scarpellini 09.12.2022 55:29

Emanuela Scarpellini is a Professor of Modern History at the University of Milan, Italy. She is the author of several books, including Material Nation: A Consumer's History of Modern Italy (2011) and Food and Foodways in Italy from 1861 to the Present (Palgrave, 2016). We talked about Professor Scarpellini's book, Italian Fashion since 1945: A Cultural History , along with class structure in...

The Days of April in the Time of Wrenches 24.11.2022 52:52

Roberto Biorcio, "I movimenti, la nuova sinistra e Avanguardia Operaia," in Volevamo cambiare il mundo: Storia di Avanguardia Operaia 1968-1977 , Eds. Roberto Biorcio e Matteo Pucciarelli. Milan: Mimesis Edizioni, 2021. Franco Calamida, "Soffiava un vento generoso. I Comitati unitari di Base e le lotte operaie," in Volevamo cambiare il mundo: Storia di Avanguardia Operaia 1968-1977 , Eds. Roberto...

Italian Feminism and the Struggle for Divorce (ft. Francesca Fiorentini) 17.11.2022 1:26:02

Maud Anne Bracke, "Between the Transnational and the Local: mapping the trajectories and contexts of the Wages for Housework campaign in 1970s Italian feminism." Women's History Review 22.4 (2013): 625-642. Patrick Cuninghame, "Italian feminism, workerism and autonomy in the 1970s. The struggle against unpaid reproductive labour and violence." Amnis. Revue d’études des sociétés et cultures contemp...

The Strategy of Tension Unravels, Pt. 2: Massacres of '74, ft. Alex Newhouse 10.11.2022 57:06

References Jeffrey Bale, The Darkest Sides of Politics: Postwar Fascism, Covert Operations, and Terrorism. London: Routledge 2018. Bianca Bardini, Stefania Noventa, 28 Maggio 1974. Strage di Piazza della Loggia. Casa della Memoria: Brescia, 2013. Anna Cento Bull, Italian neofascism: The strategy of tension and the politics of nonreconciliation. New York: Berghahn Books, 2008. Massamilliano Griner,...

The Strategy of Tension Unravels, Pt. 1: The Black Order, ft. Alex Newhouse 03.11.2022 1:01:49

Alex Newhouse is the Deputy Director of the Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism, where he focuses on right-wing extremism, religious fundamentalism, and militant accelerationism. References Jeffrey Bale, The Darkest Sides of Politics: Postwar Fascism, Covert Operations, and Terrorism. London: Routledge 2018. Anna Cento Bull, Italian neofascism: The strategy of tension and the...

"Free Them All!", pt. 3: The Explosive End of the NAP, ft. Natasha Lennard 26.10.2022 43:32

References Noberto Bobbio, As ideologias e o poder em crise . Trans. João Ferreira. Brasília: Editora Universidade de Brasília, 1999. Lotta Continua, Liberare Tutti i Dannati Della Terra . Lotta Continua edizione, 1972. Rossella Ferrigno, Nuclei Armati Proletari - Carceri, protesta, lotta armata , Edizioni La Città del Sole, Napoli, 2008. Luigi Manconi, Corpo e anima. Se vi viene voglia di fare po...

"Free Them All!", pt. 2: The Bloody Rise of the Nuclei Armati Proletari, ft. Natasha Lennard 19.10.2022 1:03:52

References Richard Drake, The Revolutionary Mystique and Terrorism in Contemporary Italy . Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2021. Lotta Continua, Liberare Tutti i Dannati Della Terra . Lotta Continua edizione, 1972. Senti Le Rani Che Canto. https://sites.google.com/site/sentileranechecantano/cronologia Rossella Ferrigno, Nuclei Armati Proletari - Carceri, protesta, lotta armata , Edizioni La...

"Free them All!", pt 1: The Birth of NAP, ft. Natasha Lennard 13.10.2022 1:08:49

Correction: the original version of this episode wrongly named Annamaria Mantini "Annamaria Martini." It was fixed October 15. I regret the error. Richard Drake, The Revolutionary Mystique and Terrorism in Contemporary Italy . Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2021. Lotta Continua, Liberare Tutti i Dannati Della Terra . Lotta Continua edizione, 1972. Senti Le Rani Che Canto. https://sites.goo...

The Sindona Affair, pt. 2: "Se l'andava cercando," ft. Joshua Stephens 06.10.2022 1:31:47

References Jeffrey Bale, The Darkest Sides of Politics: Postwar Fascism, Covert Operations, and Terrorism. London: Routledge 2018. John Berry, "David Kennedy Testifies to Link With Sindona," Washington Post, January 10, 1979. Rupert Cornwell, God's banker: an account of the life and death of Roberto Calvi . London: Gollancz 1983. Giorgio Galli, La venerabile trama. La vera storia di Licio Gelli e...

The Sindona Affair, pt. 1: The Rise of an Extraordinary Fixer, ft. Joshua Stephens 30.09.2022 1:25:25

References Jeffrey Bale, The Darkest Sides of Politics: Postwar Fascism, Covert Operations, and Terrorism. London: Routledge 2018. Rupert Cornwell, God's banker: an account of the life and death of Roberto Calvi . London: Gollancz 1983. Giorgio Galli, La venerabile trama. La vera storia di Licio Gelli e Della P2 . Torino: Copertina di Dada Effe, 2007. Richard Hammer, The Vatican Connection: The Tr...

Count Sogno's White Coup 22.09.2022 1:14:49

References Jeffrey Bale, The Darkest Sides of Politics: Postwar Fascism, Covert Operations, and Terrorism (London: Routledge 2018). Claudia Cernigoi, "Momenti di Sogno," La Redazione de "La Nuova Alabarda , " n. 58, Trieste: 2018. Gianni Flamini, Il partito del golpe: Le strategie della tensione e del terrore dal primo centrosinistra organico al sequestro Moro, 1971-1973 , Vol. 3. Ferrara: Italo B...

Rosa dei Venti, pt. 3: "The Fact Does Not Exist" 16.09.2022 1:29:27

References Jeffrey Bale, The Darkest Sides of Politics: Postwar Fascism, Covert Operations, and Terrorism. London: Routledge 2018. Gianni Barbacetto, Il grande vecchio . Milano: Rizzoli, 2010. Umberto Berlenghini, "Amos Spiazzi, non era Papadòpulos," Spazio70, found at: https://spazio70.com/anni-70/msi-ordine-nuovo-e-avanguardia-nazionale/amos-spiazzi-non-era-papadopulos/?cn-reloaded=1 Anna Cento...

Rosa dei Venti, pt. 2: NATO Psywars, Demodoxalogy, and a Tantric Murder Cult 08.09.2022 53:57

References Jeffrey Bale, The Darkest Sides of Politics: Postwar Fascism, Covert Operations, and Terrorism. London: Routledge 2018. Gianni Barbacetto, Il grande vecchio . Milano: Rizzoli, 2010. Mabel Berezin, "The festival state: Celebration and commemoration in fascist Italy." Journal of modern European history 4.1 (2006): 60-74. Alessandro Brogi, "Ambassador Clare Boothe Luce and the evolution of...

Rosa dei Venti, pt. 1: Active Combatantism and the Italian Stahlhelm 01.09.2022 46:23

References Gerard Alexander, The Sources of Democratic Consolidation . Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2002. Jeffrey Bale, The Darkest Sides of Politics: Postwar Fascism, Covert Operations, and Terrorism. London: Routledge 2018. Gianni Barbacetto, Il grande vecchio . Milano: Rizzoli, 2010. Sandro Bassetti, Terni. Tre lager per Fascisti. Milan: Lampi di Stampa, 2009. Anna Cento Bull, Italian neof...

The Presidentialists: From Nuova Repubblica to the MAR 26.08.2022 57:33

References Jeffrey Bale, The Darkest Sides of Politics: Postwar Fascism, Covert Operations, and Terrorism. London: Routledge 2018. Gianni Barbacetto, Il grande vecchio . Milano: Rizzoli, 2010. Anna Cento Bull, Italian neofascism: The strategy of tension and the politics of nonreconciliation. New York: Berghahn Books, 2008. Camera dei Deputati, Randolfo Pacciardi , Forli: Archivo Storico, 2011, htt...

Talking Esoteric Fascism, Terrorism, and Conspiracies with Jeffrey Bale 19.08.2022 1:11:54

Here's my interview with Jeffrey Bale, author of a book I frequently cite called The Darkest Sides of Politics . We talk about esoteric fascism, coup plots, and reciprocal identity formation between groups like the Red Brigades and the Nuclei Armati Revoluzionaria. Enjoy!

"A Window to Hell": The Milan Questura Massacre 12.08.2022 39:12

Works Cited Jeffrey Bale, The Darkest Sides of Politics: Postwar Fascism, Covert Operations, and Terrorism. London: Routledge 2018. Gianni Barbacetto, Il grande vecchio . Milano: Rizzoli, 2010. Marco Borghi, "Unità degli italiani (L’)," Un Secolo di Carta Venezia. found at https://www.unsecolodicartavenezia.it/scheda/unita-degli-italiani-l/ Anna Cento Bull, Italian neofascism: The strategy of tens...