TURIN. This is how humanity went from oppression to democracy. At the Intesa San Paolo skyscraper, the historian Alessandro Barbero reconstructed the long and bumpy path of the “government of the people” in the lessons-conferences organized as part of the banking group’s cultural activities. The cycle, edited by Giulia Cogoli and now in its seventh edition, can be relived on the Stampa website. It winds through three new appointments entitled “How have we learned to live together? From oppression to democracy”. A journey through the forms of social coexistence that have characterized human history and its evolution.
Disclosure
The historian and writer, professor of medieval history at the University of Eastern Piedmont, known to the public for his extraordinary dissemination skills, described the more or less well-known aspects of coexistence models in a compelling and curious way. From slavery, on which the Roman Empire or the South of the United States were held up before the Civil War, to totalitarianism, a distinctive trait of the two most ferocious dictatorships of the twentieth century, Nazism and Stalinism, up to democracy, of which the Greeks they were the first to
experience the regime, but of which many thinkers have stated with the utmost conviction that it was an evil to be avoided at all costs. So what is meant by democracy today? The appointments were also streamed. The lectures-conferences are part of the cultural schedule of the Bank skyscraper, which is characterized by the quality of the contents and the notoriety of the protagonists (artists, actors, writers, lecturers). Since 2015, the year it opened, almost 125,000 people have followed the cultural activities of the skyscraper, which in just a few years has become a center of culture, art and entertainment.
Podcast
The lessons will be published as new episodes of the podcast “Alessandro Barbero. The history, the stories” of Intesa Sanpaolo On Air, which already collects all the lessons of Professor Barbero from the cycles preceding the skyscraper. Intesa Sanpaolo On Air reached 8.5 million listeners, with an audience of which over half is under 35 and very loyal (over 45% return to On Air). The podcasts of the platform also in 2022, were at the top of the Top Podcast charts of the main audio platforms in Italy. Throughout history we encounter societies entirely based on slavery, such as the Roman Empire or the South of the United States before the Civil War, and others in which slaves are present without having a central role, such as in Renaissance Italy. In all these societies hardly anyone questioned the legitimacy of slavery, accepted as a natural fact, despite the distortions and horrors it produced. The fact that our civilization, in recent centuries, has come to delegitimize slavery and to ban it is one of the rare cases in history where we can really speak of progress. In today’s political culture, totalitarianism is identified with the two most ferocious dictatorships of the twentieth century, Nazism and Stalinism. Few remember that the term was invented in Italy to define the fascist dictatorship: coined by opponents and understood in a critical sense, totalitarianism was claimed and assumed as a program by Mussolini. Analyzing the reasons why fascism in Italy never actually succeeded in building a truly totalitarian regime is a way to explore the intrinsic diversity of Italian society and its irreducibility to a homogeneous paradigm.
Greek origin
Everyone knows that the term democracy is of Greek origin and that the Greeks were the first to experiment with the democratic regime. Today democracy is such an obvious value for us that it amazes us to discover how throughout our history, from Antiquity to the era of revolutions, many thinkers have affirmed with the utmost conviction that it was an evil to be avoided at all costs . But is what we continue to call democracy today, because we don’t have another word, still really the same thing the Greeks meant?
Through the ages
Alessandro Barbero, historian and writer, is full professor of medieval history at the University of Eastern Piedmont. He is the author of numerous essays especially on medieval and military history. In 1995 he published his first novel, Mr. Pyle’s beautiful life and other people’s wars, a gentleman (Mondadori, Premio Strega 1996). He is known to the public not only for his essays and novels, but also for his extraordinary dissemination skills, particularly in the Superquark broadcast, in the RAI Storia aCdC and Il tempo e la storia broadcasts. He was awarded in 2005 the honorary title Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres of the French Republic. Among his books: Storia del Piemonte (2008) for Einaudi; Behind the scenes of history. Daily life through time (with P. Angela, Rizzoli, 2013); Constantine the victor (Salerno, 2016); The sofa of Istanbul (2011), Federico il Grande (2017), Alabama (2021) for Sellerio Editore; The eyes of Venice (2011), The Athenians (2015) for Mondadori; Lepanto. The Battle of the Three Empires (2010), Women, Madonnas, Merchants and Knights. Six medieval stories (2013), Caporetto (2017), Dante (2020) for Laterza, Inventing books (Giunti Editore, 2022).