University of Wales, Swansea new perspective.
Politicians invent and reinvent their nation's History to add historical legitimacy to their power.
This is particularly possible with a complex movement such as the Italian Risorgimento. Since 1992, the vigour of politics in Italy has given impetus to a reconsideration of Italian unification. It is now more recognised that differing views of unification were suppressed after 1861 and that an alien north Italian constitutional and administrative structure was inappropriately imposed on the south in which traditional clientele relationships were sustained, not weakened, by greater theoretical equality and opportunity after unification. This should not surprise us. We are all aware that politicians in even the most open societies are likely to pillage the past in order to bolster their positions and interests with the most persuasive arguments available.