It has arrived! Our edited book on Guglielmo Giannini!

Firstly, WHY did we do this? 

1. Giannini was a populist politician who knew how to use new media to reach a broad and new public. We think populism is important today, both as a contemporary political movement to study, and as a movement with historical roots we can explore and explain.

2. Giannini was a politician who gained a seat in Italy's first postwar government (in 1945). He achieved this because he knew how to use 'spectacle' (political and theatrical) to get popular votes. Who does he remind us of today??! 

3. A politician who emerges from the theatre and film industries allows us to understand the interconnected nature of political power. Social media has long influenced public opinion. 

As the press site states:

A partire da una mole di documenti inediti conservati presso la famiglia di Guglielmo Giannini (1891-1960), che hanno dato luogo a un archivio digitale (Guglielmo Giannini: A digital archive of theatre, film, entertainment and political activism), gli interventi mettono a fuoco sia la figura del politico, la cui azione si colloca all'origine dei movimenti 'qualunquisti', sia, soprattutto, quella dell'uomo di spettacolo. I contributi fanno luce non solo sulla produzione nell'ambito del teatro "giallo", ma anche sulla sua "officina" drammaturgica, tanto nel periodo tra le due guerre quanto in quello successivo, nonché sull'attività critica. Parallelamente, viene ricostruita la sua attività nell'ambito cinematografico come riduttore e adattatore di pellicole americane, ma anche sceneggiatore e regista di film, nel quadro della crescita del cinema nazionale durante il periodo fascista. Tanto come cineasta che come critico, egli esprime l'idea di un cinema medio per un pubblico ampio e popolare. La conoscenza dei meccanismi dello spettacolo e l'indubbia capacità di raggiungere il pubblico rappresentano una palestra per la successiva attività politica di Giannini e, forse, ne spiegano il successo.

Or, in English:

Starting from a mass of unpublished documents preserved by the family of Guglielmo Giannini (1891-1960), a digital archive (Guglielmo Giannini: A digital archive of theater, film, entertainment and political activism) was established. This book explores Giannini through the archive, explaining that he was a politician, whose action is at the origin of the 'Qualunque' political movement, and, above all, was a showman. The contributions shed light not only on production in the "giallo" (crime/detective) theater, but also on its dramaturgical "workshop", both in the period between the two wars and in the subsequent one, as well as on critical activity. At the same time, Giannini's activity in the cinematographic field is reconstructed. He was an adapter of American films, as well as a screenwriter and film director, and so contributed to the growth of national cinema during the Fascist period. Both as a filmmaker and as a critic, he expresses the idea of ​​an popular cinema for a large mass audience. His knowledge of the mechanisms of the show and his undoubted ability to reach the public represent a training ground for Giannini's subsequent political activity and, perhaps, explain his success.