Passato e Presente

Season 72017

Program about historical dissemination, presented by Paolo Mieli. Each episode sees a historian interacting with the presenter and three young university students.

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144 Episodes

E01 The Defeat of the Dardanelles

Episode dedicated to the Gallipoli campaign, that took place during World War I.

October 10, 2017

E02 Nicolaj II, the Last Tsar

Episode dedicated to the life and death of Nicolaj II, the last Tsar of Russia: from his initial attempts at solving the needs of the people, passing through the tragic choice to join WWI, up to his arrest and execution, together with his family, by the Bolsheviks in 1917.

October 11, 2017

E03 The Trains of the Sun: Italy's Internal Migration in the 1950s

Episode dedicated to the phenomenon of Italy's internal migration, from Southern Italy to the North that took place during 1950s and 1960s, recounting the reasons behind and the effects this phenomenon had on Italian society.

October 12, 2017

E04 Duce and America

Episode dedicated to the relations between Fascist Italy and the United States: from the initial harmony between the American democracy and the dictatorial regime, passing through the 1936 Italo-Ethiopian War and the approach to Nazi Germany, until 1940 (the date on which Italy enters World War II alongside the Axis).

October 13, 2017

E05 Charlemagne

Episode dedicated to Charlemagne, historical leader and first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire: from his rise to power to the relations with the Arab and Byzantine world, passing through the creation of what became the core of modern Europe.

October 16, 2017

E06 Caporetto: Before the Battle

First of three episodes dedicated to the centenary of the Battle of Caporetto (1917): an analysis of how Italy and Austria-Hungary approach the clash, from the internal to the military situation on the field, passing through the reconstruction of the 1917 war events.

October 17, 2017

E07 Battle Name: Lenin

Episode dedicated to Vladimir Ilic Uljanov, better known as Lenin: from his exile in Switzerland and his return home (which took place with the help of Germany), passing through the failure of the first revolutionary attempt in July 1917, until the success of the October Revolution and the first steps of what will become the Soviet Union.

October 18, 2017

E08 Italian Prisoners of the Allies

Episode dedicated to the vicissitudes of Italian soldiers who were taken prisoner during World War II: the living conditions of prisoners before and after Italy's surrender, the relationship with the Badoglio Government and their difficult return home after the war.

October 19, 2017

E09 Discord's Final: 1976 Davis Cup in Chile

Episode dedicated to the 1976 Davis Cup final, played in Santiago between Chile and Italy: from the tight debate on whether or not to boycott the final, in protest against the newborn Pinochet regime, to the decision to participate, marked by the Italian victory and by the "protest" of Panatta and Bertolucci's double.

October 20, 2017

E10 Caporetto: the Battle

Second of the three episodes dedicated to the centenary of the Battle of Caporetto (1917): a detailed analysis of the clash, resulted in the clamorous defeat of the Italians and in their tragic fall back to the Piave river.

October 23, 2017

E11 Tucci, Duce's Explorer

Episode dedicated to the figure of Giuseppe Tucci, a scholar of the East, a great connoisseur of languages and civilizations such as Indian, Tibetan or Nepalese, but also an indomitable explorer of regions that were still largely unexplored.

October 24, 2017

E12 Anne Frank, a Denied Memory

Episode dedicated to the figure of Anne Frank, a young Dutch Jew who went down in history thanks to her diaries, in which she tells her life as a teenager before and during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.

October 25, 2017

E13 Trotsky, the Impossible Revolution

Episode dedicated to Lev Davidovic Bronstein, better known as Trotsky: refined intellectual and theoretician of permanent revolution, father of the October Revolution, hated, fought, deported, exiled and then chased all over the world, until a hitman reaches him in Mexico.

October 26, 2017

E14 Charles VIII in Italy

Episode dedicated to the Charles VIII's 1495 military campaign in Italy: from the conquest of the Kingdom of Naples to the coalition of the major and minor Italian states (helped by Ferdinand II of Aragon and Maximilian I of Habsburg), created for the purpose of defeating the French king.

October 27, 2017

E15 Martin Luther, the Rebel

Episode dedicated to Martin Luther, "father" of the Protestant Reformation: from his initial studies in Germany to his growing opposition to the practice of indulgences and to the Vatican's practices of the time, culminating in the publication of the 95 theses.

October 30, 2017

E16 Caporetto's Refugees

Last of the three episodes dedicated to the centenary of the Battle of Caporetto (1917): an analysis of the massive and disorganized exodus of the Italian population, after the German-Austro-Hungarian occupation of almost all Veneto, and the repercussions on the new war front on the Piave river.

October 31, 2017

E17 Stalin, the Age of Terror

Episode dedicated to Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, better known as Stalin, that went down to history as one of the bloodiest dictators of the 20th century: from his youth in the seminary, passing through his rise to power in the years following Lenin's death, his contribution in transforming the USSR into a military and industrial power, the non-aggression pact with Hitler, to the post-war years of terror and gulags.

November 1, 2017

E18 The Fascist Woman

Episode dedicated to women under Fascism: a status poised between dictatorship's attempt to force them to stay at home and be prolific mothers (discouraging their employment as much as possible) and the regime's drive towards a new "self-consciousness" through Fascist associationism.

November 2, 2017

E19 Lawrence of Arabia, Prince of the Desert

Episode dedicated to Thomas Edward Lawrence, better known as "Lawrence of Arabia": history and myth of the British colonel, secret agent and principal architect of the Arab revolt against Ottoman domination (for the benefit of the British), who died in a motorcycle accident in May 1935.

November 3, 2017

E20 Memoirs of Deportation

Episode dedicated to the reconstruction of the deportations of Jews and other prisoners during World War II: the stages through which the memory in Italy of these events was formed, starting from the Nuremberg trial to the publication of the testimonies of the survivors, first among them Primo Levi's memoirs.

November 7, 2017

E21 Dunkirk: "Operation Dynamo"

Episode dedicated to the so-called "Operation Dynamo", the gigantic evacuation operation of Anglo-French troops from Dunkirk beach in the early months of World War II.

November 8, 2017

E22 Pitigrilli, Writer and Spy

Episode dedicated to Dino Segre, also known as "Pitigrilli": one of Turin's most read writers who, in 1930s, became a spy for OVRA (the Fascist regime's political police), although he himself often had problems with the regime, that considered him "immoral" and his novels "not very Italian".

November 9, 2017

E23 The Assembly Line

Episode dedicated to the assembly line, the innovation in the industrial production by Frederick Taylor, at the base of the incredible productivity growth of nowadays "consumer society", but also of the workers' protests against the alienation and the ever-increasing use of machines.

November 10, 2017

E24 Lyndon B. Johnson

Episode dedicated to Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th President of the United States: from his first political experiences, passing through the election as senator and the vice-presidency under Kennedy, until his unexpected appointment as president, his commitment to civil rights, his management of university protests and his involvement in the Vietnam War.

November 14, 2017

E25 Nikita Khrushchev

Episode dedicated to Nikita Khrushchev, Secretary of the CPSU and successor of Stalin to the leadership of the USSR: from the denunciation of Stalinism, passing through the suppression of the Hungarian uprising of 1956, up to the Cuban missile crisis, after which it will be ousted and confined to a dacha until his death.

November 15, 2017

E26 Giorgio La Pira, Politics and Utopia

Episode dedicated to Giorgio La Pira, politician of the Italian Republican Party and historic mayor of Florence: an important and original figure, who strove in the (somewhat utopian) attempt to contribute to overcoming historical conflicts through peaceful means.

November 16, 2017

E27 Ernest Hemingway

Episode dedicated to Ernest Hemingway, one of the most important writers of the 20th century, who committed suicide at the age of 62. On the front of World War I, of the Spanish Civil War (on the side of the Republicans and against the Francoists) and of World War II, his adventurous life also filters through his very successful novels.

November 17, 2017

E28 Elizabeth and Philip

Episode dedicated to Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and her prince consort Philip of Edinburgh: from their marriage in 1947, for which Philip renounced the succession to the thrones of Greece and Denmark, to Elisabeth's ascent to the throne in 1952, on the background of the disintegration of the former British Empire and the new role of the United Kingdom after World War II.

November 20, 2017

E29 The Inquisition and the Cathars' heresy

Episode dedicated to the Cathars and the Inquisition, a special institution created by the Catholic Church to repress and counter the heretical movements that, from 12th century on, spread throughout Europe.

November 21, 2017

E30 Italian Military Internees: Voices from Captivity

Episode dedicated to the "Italian Military Internees", the Italian soldiers captured by the Germans after September 8, 1943: refusing to continue fighting alongside the Nazi-fascists, they were denied the status of prisoners of war; used in the Axis war industry, abused and unable to receive help from the Red Cross, after the end of the war they were "forgotten" until 1997, when their figure was eventually rehabilitated.

November 22, 2017

E31 Gaddafi

Episode dedicated to Muammar al-Gaddafi: one of the most discussed and controversial Arab leaders in history, for 42 years in command of Libya, starting with the coup d'état of September 1, 1969 (carried out at just 27 years), and at the center of countless unworkable political designs and military conflicts.

November 23, 2017

E32 Women During Italy's Economic Boom

Episode dedicated to the new role of women during Italy's "Economic Boom": the effect of economic well-being and mass consumerism on the behaviours and habits of women, but also of new means of communication (television, above all) and newborns beauty contests, which promise occasions of fame and social mobility.

November 24, 2017

E33 Ippolito Nievo, Between Novels and Garibaldi

Episode dedicated to Ippolito Nievo, Italian writer and patriot.

November 27, 2017

E34 Pope Luciani

Episode dedicated to Pope John Paul I, who ruled as a Pontiff for only 33 days, enough to enter the hearts of the faithful, above all for his very informal style and his being far from spotlight; paradoxically, however, his sudden death will attract worldwide attention.

November 28, 2017

E35 September 1943: an Army in Disarray

Episode dedicated to the Italian WWII armistice on September 8, 1943: from the negotiations started after Allied landing in Sicily, through Operation Alaric (the Nazi occupation of the Italian peninsula) and the provisions on how to react to the probable German retaliation after the armistice, which however were never officially given, leaving the Italian commands on their own without orders.

November 29, 2017

E36 The Suez Canal

Episode dedicated to the Suez Canal, the pharaonic work that connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea: from its construction in the 19th century until 1956, the year in which Egyptian president Nasser decided to nationalize it; this decision is followed by the so-called "Suez crisis", which marked the definitive decline of France and the United Kingdom as World powers and the escalation of the clash between Arab countries and Israel.

November 30, 2017

E37 The Palazzo D'Accursio Massacre

Episode dedicated to one of the most tragic events of Italy's "red biennium" (1919-1920): the Fascist assault on Palazzo D'Accursio in Bologna on November 21, 1920, where Fascist gangs shot and bombed the crowd, killing 10 and wounding 58; the event marks the irreversible crisis of socialism in Bologna and paves the way for the so-called "black biennium (1921-1922).

December 1, 2017

E38 The Holy Grail

Episode dedicated to the myth of the Holy Grail, a mythical object endowed with an extraordinary power, and even capable of bestowing immortality to those who possess it: first cited in a Chrétien de Troyes 12th-century poem, the myth had a great success throughout the Middle Ages, but returned more recently to the limelight only with Richard Wagner's Parsifal.

December 4, 2017

E39 Kennedy vs Nixon

Episode dedicated to the 1960 US Presidential elections televised debates, contested between the Democratic Irish-American candidate John Fitzgerald Kennedy and the incumbent Republican Vice-president (and, to that point, likely to win) Richard Nixon: from the political differences to the novelty of the television debate, that Kennedy will be able to exploit to his full advantage.

December 5, 2017

E40 Tina Anselmi, a Life For Democracy

Episode dedicated to Tina Anselmi, historical figure of Italy's Christian Democracy: from her early years as a trade unionist, through her efforts as a partisan during World War II and in her party after the war, to her appointment as Italy's first-ever female Minister in 1976.

December 7, 2017

E41 Cavour's Legacy

Episode dedicated to Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, and to the lesser-known aspects of his figure: from his work behind the scenes of the Italy's Risorgimento to his death by malaria (June 6, 1861), which caused a huge void in the Italian political scene; his project continued however in the following decade, with the conquest of Veneto and Rome.

December 8, 2017

E42 Giotto and the Discovery of Reality

Episode dedicated to Giotto, one of the most famous and revolutionary artists in the history of art, even if his biography is often incomplete: from the fragments we know of his personal history to the most important testimonies of his work, such as the frescoes in the Basilica of Assisi and the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua.

December 11, 2017

E43 Khomeini's Iran

Episode dedicated to the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and the 1979 Islamic Revolution: from his opposition to Shah Reza Pahlavi's regime to the success of his Revolution, up to the 1980 hostage crisis and the 1980s war between his country and Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

December 12, 2017

E44 Tambroni and the Street Demonstrations

Episode dedicated to Ferdinando Tambroni and his troubled, short-lived Government, that lasted only four months in 1960.

December 13, 2017

E45 Evita Perón

Episode dedicated to Maria Eva Ibarguren, better known as Evita Perón: illegitimate daughter of the Argentine landowner Juan Duarte, she will experience throughout her life indignation in front of diversity of treatment and injustice, becoming one of the most important figures of Argentine politics, together to her husband Juan Domingo Perón.

December 14, 2017

E46 The Women of Italy's Constituent Assembly

Episode dedicated to the 21 women elected to Italy's 1946 Constituent Assembly, four of whom elected in the so-called "Commission of the 75", charged with writing the republican Constitution: formal equality between men and women is thus sanctioned, the first stage of a long journey towards de facto equality.

December 15, 2017

E47 The Emigrants and Marcinelle

Episode dedicated to Italian emigration to Belgium: from the agreement of June 23, 1946 (with which Italy and Belgium agree on the transfer of 50,000 Italian miners in Belgium, in exchange for 2,500 tons of coal every 1,000 miners) to the disaster of Marcinelle (August 8, 1956) in which 262 people died.

December 18, 2017

E48 James of England and the Gunpowder Plot

December 19, 2017

E49 When Lenin Sang with Mussolini

December 20, 2017

E50 Dino Grandi, the Man Who Defeated Mussolini

December 21, 2017

E51 Tunisia: Roots of the Uprising

December 22, 2017

E52 Garibaldi and The Thousand

January 8, 2018

E53 Italian Constitution: the Togliatti Case

January 9, 2018

E54 Italo Balbo, an Inconvenient Fascist

January 10, 2018

E55 The Conquest of the West

January 11, 2018

E56 Qin Shi Huang, First Emperor of China

January 12, 2018

E57 The 1968 Belice Earthquake

January 15, 2018

E58 Emperor Hadrian

January 16, 2018

E59 The Night of the Long Knives

January 17, 2018

E60 The Battle of El Alamein

January 18, 2018

E61 Rosie and the American Women at War

January 19, 2018

E62 Arduin, King of Italy

January 22, 2018

E63 Paul VI and the Rebel Priests of 1968

January 23, 2018

E64 1938: the Italian Racial Laws

January 24, 2018

E65 Jews Escaping From Nazism

January 25, 2018

E66 Eichmann, the Extermination Accountant

January 26, 2018

E67 The Battle of Actium

January 29, 2018

E68 Gandhi, the Great Soul

January 30, 2018

E69 Stasi, GDR's Secret Eye

January 31, 2018

E70 Alba de Céspedes, the Voice of Clorinda

February 1, 2018

E71 The Montesi Affair, a Political Scandal

February 2, 2018

E72 Wilson and the Treaty of Versailles

February 6, 2018

E73 Edda Ciano, the Duce's Daughter

February 7, 2018

E74 Churchill and His King

February 8, 2018

E75 The Julian-Dalmatian Tragedy: From Massacres to Exodus

February 9, 2018

E76 Piave River Was Murmuring

February 12, 2018

E77 Diderot, Raynal and the Slave Trade

February 13, 2018

E78 Nenni and Mussolini

February 14, 2018

E79 Sadat, New Egypt's Rais

February 15, 2018

E80 Giacomo Lercaro, the Deposed Cardinal

February 16, 2018

E81 Masaniello and the Revolt of Naples

February 19, 2018

E82 The Merlin Act

February 20, 2018

E83 The London Blitz

February 21, 2018

E84 Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady

February 22, 2018

E85 The Ruse of the Trojan Horse

February 26, 2018

E86 Saddam Hussein

February 27, 2018

E87 The America of Jazz: From New Orleans to the World

February 28, 2018

E88 1968: the Battle of Valle Giulia

March 1, 2018

E89 D'Annunzio, the Aesthete of Politics

March 2, 2018

E90 Silvio Pellico and His Imprisonment

March 5, 2018

E91 Gino Bartali, the National Righteous

March 6, 2018

E92 Cinecittà, Hollywood on the Tiber River

March 7, 2018

E93 Carla Lonzi and Feminism

March 8, 2018

E94 Anita Garibaldi, Heroine of the Italian Risorgimento

March 9, 2018

E95 1527: the Sack of Rome

March 12, 2018

E96 Edward and Wallis, a Forbidden Love

March 13, 2018

E97 Pope Paul VI

March 14, 2018

E98 Housing in Italy's 1960s

March 15, 2018

E99 Aldo Moro: the Negotiation

March 16, 2018

E100 The Five Days of Milan

March 19, 2018

E101 The Balfour Declaration: the Origins of Israel

March 20, 2018

E102 The Trial of Giordano Bruno

March 21, 2018

E103 Lenin and the Defeat of Socialism in Italy

March 22, 2018

E104 The Orthodox Church

March 29, 2018

E105 The Holy Sepulchre

March 30, 2018

E106 The Spring Festivals

April 2, 2018

E107 1968 in the Eastern Bloc

April 3, 2018

E108 Martin Luther King

April 4, 2018

E109 The 1979 Iran Hostage Crisis

April 5, 2018

E110 Orazio Antinori and Colonial Exploration

April 6, 2018

E111 Luigi Giussani, Servant of God

April 10, 2018

E112 Workers between 1968 and the "Hot Autumn"

April 11, 2018

E113 The Attempted Murder of Togliatti

April 12, 2018

E114 The 1948 Italian General Elections

April 13, 2018

E115 Roberto Ruffilli, Killed by Red Brigades

April 16, 2018

E116 Louis XIV, the Sun King

April 17, 2018

E117 Radios of Free Italy

April 18, 2018

E118 Pope Benedict XVI

April 19, 2018

E119 The Red Scare

April 20, 2018

E120 Southern Italy and the Italian Unitary State

April 23, 2018

E121 The 1938 Football World Championship

April 24, 2018

E122 The Scouts and the Resistance

April 25, 2018

E123 The Chernobyl Catastrophe

April 26, 2018

E124 The Battle of Stalingrad

April 27, 2018

E125 Charles Albert, the Reformer Sovereign

April 30, 2018

E126 1968 in Milan

May 1, 2018

E127 1938: Hitler in Italy

May 2, 2018

E128 France's May 68

May 3, 2018

E129 Karl Marx: Revolutionary Thinking

May 4, 2018

E130 The Fall of the Western Roman Empire

May 7, 2018

E131 Prague Spring and Dubcek's Socialism

May 8, 2018

E132 Killing of Aldo Moro: the Day After

May 9, 2018

E133 Pearl Harbour, 1941: Attack to America

May 10, 2018

E134 Law 180: the Basaglia Revolution

May 11, 2018

E135 Ignatius of Loyola and the Jesuits

May 14, 2018

E136 Giovanni Giolitti: the Statesman

May 15, 2018

E137 The Church of John Paul II

May 16, 2018

E138 Guglielmo Giannini, the Ordinary Man

May 17, 2018

E139 Propaganda During the Great War

May 18, 2018

E140 Nero, Emperor of Rome

May 21, 2018

E141 194: the Law of Discord

May 22, 2018

E142 The 1992 Mafia Bombings

May 23, 2018

E143 1918: the Explosion of a Factory

May 24, 2018

E144 1848 and the Roman Republic

May 25, 2018