Modern Italy Vol. 15, No. 3, August 2010, 371–379 Searching for memories in the suburbs of Rome Citta` di parole. Storia orale di una periferia romana, by Alessandro Portelli, Bruno Bonomo, Alice Sotgia and Ulrike Viccaro, Rome, Donzelli, 2006, 245 pp., E15.00 (paperback), ISBN 978-8860-361097 La Garbatella a Roma 1920–1940, by Monica Sinatra, Milan, FrancoAngeli, 2006, 160 pp., E19.00 (paperback), ISBN 978-8846-473646 Il quartiere delle valli: Costruire Roma nel secondo dopoguerra, by Bruno Bonomo, Milan, FrancoAngeli, 2007, 208 pp., E18.00 (paperback), ISBN 978-8846-488114 Pietralata. Da campagna a isola di periferia, by Emiliana Camarda, Milan, FrancoAngeli, 2007, 144 pp., E18.00 (paperback), ISBN 978-8846-483379 Tor Pignattara. Fascismo e Resistenza di un quartiere romano, Stefania Ficacci, Milan, FrancoAngeli, 2007, 152 pp., E18.00 (paperback), ISBN 978-8846-482976 Storia di Borgata Gordiani. Dal fascismo agli anni del ‘boom’, by Ulrike Viccaro, Milan, FrancoAngeli, 2007, 192 pp., E18.00 (paperback), ISBN 978-8846-476227 Piazza Bologna. Alle origini di un quatiere ‘borghese’, by Eva Masini, Milan, FrancoAngeli, 2009, 192 pp., E18.00 (paperback), ISBN 978-8846-499578 The history of the suburbs of Rome has always been an important element of the history of the city, more than has been the case for other major Italian cities. The growth of the Roman suburbs in the twentieth century has been the subject of focused studies which already form part of the recognised body of historical writing on the capital. 1 More generally, suburban growth is a phenomenon which must be taken into account by any attempt to set out a modern history of Rome. 2 While this strand of historical writing has never been entirely absent, it has gained new strength in recent years. A clutch of recently published books have brought the suburbs of Rome into the centre of historical debate, putting forward new readings of the suburbs which manifest a number of original elements while at the same time remaining grounded, in significant respects, in earlier historical writing. The key event in this context is the initiation by the FrancoAngeli publishing house of a series entitled ‘A laboratory of urban history: the many identities of twentieth-century Rome’: six studies, each dedicated to a different suburban district of Rome, have been published since 2006. (All six are reviewed here.) They stand alongside a number of other works published in the same period, with similar aims and standpoints. 3 The ‘new history’ of the Roman suburbs is mainly the work of academic historians, which is a point not to be taken for granted: on one hand, the history of the suburbs of Rome has often been written by architects, town planners, sociologists and political militants, and only rarely by historians; on the other, research in the suburbs of many large ISSN 1353–2944 print/ISSN 1469–9877 online DOI: 10.1080/13532944.2010.490348 http://www.informaworld.com Downloaded By: [De Pieri, Filippo] At: 12:23 11 August 2010