Respectability and Violence : The University of Wisconsin Press : 9780299333300 : 0299333302 : 31 Aug 2021 : In the aftermath of national unification in the 1860s, the Italian army was tasked with molding generations of men from warring regions and different social strata into obedient citizens of a centralized state. Integrating large numbers of the educated middle classes into the young kingdom's armed forces proved decisive in establishing the army as the 'main school' and backbone for mass nationalization. Lorenzo Benadusi examines the intersection of Italian military and civil society over the last century as they coalesced in the figure of the gentleman-officer'an idealized image of an altruistic, charming, and competent ruling class that could influence the choices, values, and behavior of the 'new Italians." Respectability and Violence traces the relationship between civic virtues and military values from the post-Risorgimento period through the end of World War I, when the tr