Commonly referred to collectively as the anni di piombo -- years of lead -- the 1970s have been seen as a parenthesis in Italian history, which was dominated by political violence and terrorism.

The seventeen essays in this wide-ranging collection adopt different scholarly perspectives to challenge this monolithic view and uncover the complexity of the decade, exploring its many facets and re-assessing political conflict. The volume brings to the fore the ruptures of the period through an examination of literature, film, gender relations, party politics and political participation, social structures and identities. This more balanced assessment of the period allows the vibrancy and dynamism of new social and cultural movements to emerge. The long-lasting effects of this period on Italian culture and society and its crucial legacy to the present are lucidly revealed, dispelling the widely-held belief that the 1970s were largely a regressive decade.

With the contributions: Anna Cento Bull, Adalgisa Giorgio -- The 1970s through the Looking Glass

Piero Ignazi -- Italy in the 1970s between Self-Expression and Organicism

Paola Di Cori -- Listening and Silencing. Italian Feminists in the 1970s: Between autocoscienza and Terrorism

Amalia Signorelli -- Women in Italy in the 1970s

Lesley Caldwell -- Is the Political Personal? Fathers and Sons in Bertolucci's Tragedia di un uomo ridicolo and Amelio's Colpire al cuore

Jennifer Burns -- A Leaden Silence? Writers' Responses to the anni di piombo

Adalgisa Giorgio -- From Little Girls to Bad Girls: Women's Writing and Experimentalism in the 1970s and 1990s

Enrico Palandri -- The Difficulty of a Historical Perspective on the 1970s

Mark Donovan -- The Radicals: An Ambiguous Contribution to Political Innovation

Carl Levy -- Intellectual Unemployment and Political Radicalism in Italy, 1968-1982

Roberto Bartali -- The Red Brigades and the Moro Kidnapping: Secrets and Lies

Tom Behan -- Allende, Berlinguer, Pinochet... and Dario Fo

Philip Cooke -- "A riconquistare la rossa primavera" The Neo-Resistance of the 1970s

Claudia Bernardi -- Collective Memory and Childhood Narratives: Rewriting the 1970s in the 1990s

Valeria Pizzini Gambetta -- Becoming Visible: Did the Emancipation of Women Reach the Sicilian Mafia?

Davide PerO -- The Left and the Construction of Immigrants in 1970s Italy

Anna Cento Bull -- From the Centrality of the Working Class to its Demise: The Case of Bagnoli, Naples