The book seeks to understand Italy's approach to crises by studying the country in regional, international, and comparative context. Without assuming that the country is abnormal or unusually crisis-prone, the authors treat Italy as an example from which other countries might learn.

Part I: Introduction

1. Italy in Crisis: Eppur si muove [Matthew Evangelista]

Part II: The Political-economic Nexus

2. The Canary in the Coal Mine: Movements, Parties, and Populists in the Italian Crises [Sidney Tarrow]

3. Disembedding the Italian Economy? Four Trajectories of Structural Reform [Jonathan Hopkin and Julia Lynch]

4. The Trickle Down of Corruption: Italy, Mafia, and the Crisis of Legality [Fabio Armao]

Part III: Foreign, Energy, and Security Policy

5. Italian Foreign Policy after the Cold War: Enduring Crisis and the Limits of a Post-ideological Foreign Policy [Elisabetta Brighi]

6. Running in Chains: The Transformation of Italian Defense Policy [Fabrizio Coticchia]

7. Between Shocks and Crises: Changes in Italian Energy Policies from the Cold War to Today [Elisabetta Bini]

Part IV: Societal Change and Adaptation

8. Where Have All the Young People Gone? Generations, Family, and Work in Italy [Adele Lebano]

9. An Italian "Integration Crisis": The Role of the State and Political Actors in Excluding Immigrants and Ethnic Minorities [Teresa M. Cappiali]

10. Va pensiero: The Evolution of Italy's Information Society [Giampiero Giacomello]

11. Crisis and Improvisation?: A Historical Meditation on Italian Post-war Political Development [Mabel Berezin]

12. The Italian Crisis in Comparative Perspective [Kenneth Roberts]

Matthew Evangelista is President White Professor of History and Political Science and former Chair of the Department of Government at Cornell University, New York, USA.