In a departure from her earlier works, which offered innovative interpretations and new research on the Adriatic and north-eastern Italy, Marina Cattaruzza presents here a valuable work of synthesis that combines a diplomatic and political overview of the complexities of the Adriatic question in the years following the First World War with a selection of documents relating to parliamentary debates of the period. Intended to commemorate the First World War centenary, the volume provides a historiographical perspective on the transformation of Liberal Italy as a result of wartime upheaval and violence and the post-war rise of Fascism and transformation of Italian irredentism and nationalism. The 1920 Treaty of Rapallo, a bilateral agreement between the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and Italy, emerges as the centrepiece of the conflict over the fate of the Adriatic lands, a struggle that attests to the inability of Italy and Europe to reconcile traditional territorially-based diplomatic expectations about conflict solutions with emerging ideologies of ethnic self-determination and popular, participatory internationalist politics in the wake of the First World War.

In detailed expository chapters (11–194), Cattaruzza traces the arc of Italy’s Adriatic politics and diplomacy from the November 1918 Armistice to the 1926 Tirana Pact and the consolidation of Fascist foreign policy. Cattaruzza identifies three key issues that informed Italian policy and opinions on the Adriatic question: insecurities about Italy’s ‘Great Power’ status; questions relating to the fate of Fiume/Rijeka; and aftershocks of the war that produced political instability and ‘mass delusion’ (60) in Italy. She sheds light on the inadequacies of Italian leadership (particularly on the part of Sidney Sonnino and Vittorio Orlando), the aggravating impact of French machinations, and the destabilising effects of Gabriele D’Annunzio’s outlandish political antics, which exacerbated Italy’s diplomatic predicaments in the early 1920s. The situation in the Adriatic, evident in Italy’s failures to resolve questions regarding the fate of contested lands and inability to compromise with other successor states, emerges as a microcosm of broader European failures to meet the challenges of the inter-war period.

In her examinations of the collision of Italian irredentism and Russian-supported Pan-Slavism in the Italian/South Slav (or Yugoslav) border regions, Cattaruzza teases out the ideological currents in the historiography of the region, which often relies on assumptions of Cold War East/West dichotomy or post-Cold War fragmentation and Europeanisation. Her discussions of the impacts of self-determination, Great Power influence, autonomist groups, and Pan-Slavism in the creation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes offer a welcome counterbalance to recent accounts of the Adriatic that have tended to amplify the voices of ethnic exclusionists and nationalist parties.

Cattaruzza also weaves environmental politics and diplomacy into the volume. Her treatment of Dalmatia and the islands of the Adriatic archipelago (124–126) offers a geographical view of Italian interests often overlooked in the dominant perspective from the peninsula. Presentation of the intricate details of negotiations over Fiume/Rijeka, Zara/Zadar, and other contested areas allows a glimpse of the workings of conceptions of ‘natural boundaries’ and defensive interests in the processes of boundary drawing and revisions after the First World War. Maritime considerations and the economics of port cities take centre stage in her discussion of the impact of labour relations in Sussak and Fiume on the conclusion of the 1925 Nettuno Treaty between Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (173).

Cattaruzza observes the impacts of wartime dislocation, military occupation, Fascist squad violence, and irredentist agitation on both sides of the Italo-South Slav border, effectively combining traditional diplomatic history approaches with cultural and intellectual perspectives to paint a broad picture of various aspects of the Adriatic question. Of particular note is the intriguing and balanced discussion of the polemical debate in the popular press in reaction to the Rapallo Treaty (134–139).

The second part of the book (201–572) includes a collection of government communications, military opinions, and parliamentary discussions selected by the author to document debates on the Adriatic question in the Italian Chamber of Deputies and Senate. The inclusion of the primary documents speaks to the book’s purpose as the fourth volume in a series sponsored by the Historical Archives of the Senate dedicated to ‘Historic Debates in Parliament’ (295). It captures the voices of well-known Italian leaders such as Gaetano Salvemini, Francesco Nitti, and Carlo Sforza, as well as those of lesser-known figures connected to Adriatic politics, including Luigi Ziliotto, Attilio Hortis, and Vittorio Zupelli. However, in light of the vast documentation available, the section as a whole is somewhat disappointing. The author notes that the selection ‘does not aim for completeness’ (195) but, nonetheless, the choice seems scattershot, with excerpts ranging from technical discussions of the design of agreements to political debates and posturing in the Chamber of Deputies. In addition, the section covers only the period from April 1919 to December 1920 (bounded by discussions of the Paris Conference and Saint-Germain Treaty negotiations and approval of the Rapallo Treaty), considerably narrowing the window explored in the first section, which covers foreign policy from 1918 to 1926. Focus on the Treaty of Rapallo, while seemingly intended to illustrate the treaty’s importance in setting the tone for the rise of Fascist foreign policy, has the effect of minimising the importance of other issues highlighted in the essay, including the fate of Dalmatia, the continuing conflict over the autonomy of Fiume, and the Italian relationship with Albania, to name just a few examples.

The book is a scholar’s book. Its attention to the intricate details of negotiations over the Adriatic territories and synthesis of approaches to the Adriatic question offer considerable food for thought for researchers engaged in scholarship on the Adriatic provinces in the era of the First World War. It is also valuable for those interested in comparative history and the transnational diplomatic and political challenges and border conflicts that plagued inter-war Europe.