2018 Program
Event #26
Alessandro Barbero
World War I: Caporetto
During World War I, even if Italy was still a weak nation, it faced a very challenging trial on organizational, industrial and human level. After the Unification, all the efforts made in fifty years to build a real, national community were successful. However, Italy is remembered worldwide for an episode that still sounds humiliating – the Caporetto battle. It is a pity, but we cannot blame others, since during Caporetto Italy showed the other side of a nation suspended between modernity and backwardness – the inefficiency, the rhetoric, and the irresponsibility of the ruling class. A burden Italy has never managed to break away from.
Alessandro Barberois a historian and a writer and a tenured professor of Medieval History at Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale e Vercelli. He writes for La Stampa and Tuttolibri. He is a contributor on the television program Superquark and the shows Il tempo e la storia and a.C.d.C., broadcast by Rai Storia. His publications include: Benedette guerre. Crociate e jihad («i Libri del Festival della Mente», 2009), Lepanto. La battaglia dei tre imperi («i Libri del Festival della Mente», 2010), Donne, madonne, mercanti e cavalieri. Sei storie medievali («i Libri del Festival della Mente», 2013), published by Laterza; Gli occhi di Venezia (Mondadori, 2011); Il divano di Istanbul (Sellerio, 2011); Dietro le quinte della Storia. La vita quotidiana attraverso il tempo, written with P. Angela (Rizzoli, 2012); Le Ateniesi (Mondadori, 2015); Costantino il vincitore (Salerno Editrice, 2016); Le parole del papa (2016) and Caporetto (2017), published by Laterza. Il divano di Istanbul (2011), Alabama (2021) and Poeta al comando (2022), published by Sellerio.
Event #17
Mario Cucinella
Architecture as a political action and an instrument for territories’ revitalization

Event #24Approfonditamente
Beniamino de’ Liguori Carino, Giuseppe Lupo, Alberto Saibene
Adriano Olivetti: building a community

Event #31Approfonditamente
Giulia Alonzo, Marco Belpoliti, Adriana Polveroni, Oliviero Ponte di Pino
Criticism 2.0. Cultural communication in the age of the web

Event #59Children / Kids
Caterina Giannotti, Maria Pia Montagna
Writing is a game if you know the rules!
