Cold War history in Italy

The article deals with the origins and the development of the historical studies on the cold war in Italy. The essay argues that in the 1970s as a consequence of the opening of the US archives some Italian historians began to analyse the US attitude towards Italy between the late stages of the Second World War and the immediate postwar period. Italian historians' interest strengthened owing to the opening of western European and Italian archives. The interpretations appear at first to share the US revisionist approach and later on they moved towards the post-revisionist approach. Italian histriography's attitude widened to topics dealing with other countries' position in the cold war. Moreover the article argues that the sudies on the cold war were influenced also by the history of the European ntegration and the history of international organisations.In most recent time the sudies on the cold war aimed at understanding the link between the international dimension and the domestic context. The essay concludes arguig that although the historical studies on the cold war in Italy had developed stimulating interpretations,there are still difficuties fr Italian historians to be a part of the international historical debate.