From political subversion to common crime: law and public order in early Kingdom of Italy (1861-1880)

This work examines the structural, legal, and political mechanisms through which the newly formed Kingdom of Italy sought to establish authority and preserve public order during its first two decades of unification (1861–1880). Moving beyond traditional celebratory narratives of the Risorgimento, the study analyzes how the Liberal state addressed the deep-seated social, economic, and institutional fractures of a fragmented peninsula by increasingly relying on administrative centralization, legal repression, and the criminalization of political dissent.