Naples 1944

War, Liberation and Chaos

Keith Lowe

$59.99

Hardback

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English

William Collins
01 January 2025

European history; Second World War

An Aspects of History Best Book of the Year; An Engelsberg Ideas Best Book of the Year

‘A rigorous, myth-busting look at the city’s chaotic recovery in the wake of war and fascism’ Financial Times

The Second World War destroyed countless cities in Europe and Asia. Naples 1944 is the story of the first major European city to be liberated by the Allies. The book describes not only what happened to Naples when the scourge of war lashed down upon it, but also, crucially, what happened next.

This is the first major history of wartime Naples to appear in the English language. It fills a glaring gap in the British and American historiography of the war and shares a hoard of new stories – some of them truly shocking – that have never yet been published in any language.

When the Allies arrived in late 1943, Naples had already suffered a brutal German occupation and suffered reprisals from the city’s heroic resistance and uprisings. This did not save it from the merciless Allied bombing. The city was on its knees with widespread suffering and squalor. Criminal gangs prospered, as did typhus, starvation and soaring prices on the black market. Much of the female population was forced into part-time prostitution simply to obtain food. Then Vesuvius erupted.

Lowe’s gripping and powerful book places Naples right at the heart of Italian history. What happened in this city was not a mere sideshow to bigger events taking place further north, it was central to the story of the country as a whole. Neapolitans resisted Fascism just as the Florentines, the Bolognese, and the Milanese did. They suffered just as northerners did, and they longed as much for constitutional rebirth. The heroism and sacrifice that took place in Naples were harbingers of what would later happen throughout Italy – as were the compromise and corruption of ideals that came after the Allies took control.

Naples 1944 is original and humane history at its very best, and a book which shows that Neapolitan story is the Italian story.

By: Keith Lowe
Imprint: William Collins
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 240mm, Width: 159mm, Spine: 44mm
Weight: 1.400kg
ISBN: 9780008339593
ISBN 10: 0008339597
Pages: 400
Publication Date: 01 January 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Keith Lowe is the bestselling author of several major works of history. His first book, Inferno, was a critically acclaimed study of the bombing of Hamburg in 1943. His second book, Savage Continent, became a Sunday Times top ten bestseller, and went on to win both the Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History and Italy’s national Cherasco History Prize. The Fear and the Freedom was shortlisted for the Historical Writers’ Association Non-fiction Crown. He has also written books on WWII monuments, and the bombing of Hamburg in 1943. Lowe has written for a variety of newspapers and journals, including the Daily Telegraph, The Times, the Wall Street Journal, El Paìs and the NeueZürcherZeitung. He serves on the historical advisory board for Liberation Route Europe, and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He lives in London with his wife and two children.

Reviews for Naples 1944: War, Liberation and Chaos

PRAISE FOR PRISONERS OF HISTORY: A Spectator Book of the Year 2020 A Times and Sunday Times Best Book of 2020 A Mail on Sunday Book of the Year 2020 ‘[An] inspired idea … Always thoughtful and evocative, sometimes controversial … Lowe’s sensitive, disturbing book should be compulsory reading for both statue builders and statue topplers. Too many memorials of all kinds seek to promote deceits or half-truths.’ MAX HASTINGS, THE SUNDAY TIMES ‘[A] brilliantly researched and timely book … Lowe is not afraid to tread on sensitive ground, but he does so with the integrity that comes from really knowing his material’ THE DAILY MAIL, FIVE STARS ‘Such a provocative perspective makes Lowe’s choice of monuments important. The well-balanced range here enables the retelling of some remarkable war stories, while also providing fascinating insights into the ways different nations have remembered or denied issues around national identity and the glory and horrors of war … this is some of the most thought-provoking writing about the Second World War that I have read for a long while’ SPECTATOR ‘In this timely book, which neatly combines history, art criticism and travelogue, Lowe examines 25 monuments to the Second World War spread across three continents … Lowe is a fine guide to these monuments because he feels the moral force — for good or bad — of each site he visits’ THE TIMES, BOOK OF THE WEEK