Politics and Symbols

In the wake of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and with the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe collapsing, Italian Communist Party (PCI) head Achille Occhetto shocked his party in 1989 by insisting that the PCI jettison its old name and become something new. This dramatic book tells of the ensuing struggle within the PCI, which at the time was Italy's second-largest party and the most powerful Communist party in the West. David I. Kertzer's vivid depiction of the conflict brings to life the tactics that party factions employed and the anguish of party members for whom Communism was the core of their identity. Kertzer also tells a larger story from an anthropologist's perspective: the story of the importance of symbols, myths, and rituals in modern politics.

First sentence: Stretching out into the periphery of Bologna, behind the train station, just beyond the old walls of the city, lies the quartiere of Bolognina (little Bologna).

Year

1996

Language

English

Publisher

Yale University Press

Editions

1

Pages

224

ISBN

9780300077247

Data source: Wikidata