Focusing on modern Italian history from the Age of the Enlightenment to the present, this reference work augments and serves as a companion and bibliographical supplement to Coppa's earlier volume, Dictionary of Modern Italian History (Greenwood Press, 1985), which surveyed the chief events, figures, institutions, and developments from the 18th century to the present in short bibliographical entries. Select rather than comprehensive, this compact volume provides publication data and annotations ranging from two sentences to a short paragraph in length for each entry and includes only works directly examined or for which reliable reviews were available to the compilers. Entries, which represent a wide range of political, philosophical, sociological, economic, and religious monographs and histories, include books and articles produced in America and Europe during the last two decades, with a selection of works published prior to 1970, and a number of U.S. and Canadian dissertations. Also reviewed are a select number of works in the arts, social sciences, and the humanities.

The entries are classified in seven parts which include two sections for works that encompass more than one period of Italian history: general and reference works/bibliographic studies and monographic studies. The five chronological sections follow: works on 18th century Italy, 1700-1796; the Risorgimento, 1796-1861; liberal Italy, 1861-1922; Fascist Italy, 1922-1945; and the Italian Republic, 1945 to present. Most of the works cited are written in English or Italian, with a few French, German, and Spanish titles incorporated. As a concise survey of the rich mine of recent historiographical literature on modern Italian history, this annotated bibliography will be welcomed by students and scholars of Italian affairs and should be part of the reference collections of college, university, and major public libraries.