Regional historiography: Sicily

d
in Memoria e Ricerca n.s. 22 (2006), p. 97

In the last twenty years the regional historiography on Sicily has been more and more critical towards the stereotypes, the myths and the commonplaces which have prevailed in the traditional image of the sicilian history and identity. Always sensitive to the comparison among different regions, it has reinterpreted both the paradigm of the sociocultural and economic uniformity and the rural stereotype. In particular it has the urban history referred, especially in the last years, to the centre-periphery category. The relation between State and society, city and country, second world war and republican age, the history of the mafia, of Sicily in the Mediterranean are the main fields of research which have guided the most recent historiographical progresses, linking the local dimension to the national and international ones.