This history of Siena, by the late Antonio Cardini (University of Siena), features an extensive sub-heading on the title page, adding: La città medievale in età contemporanea. Un paradigma italiano (1861–1961), which translates as The Medieval City in the Modern Age: An Italian Paradigm. The hundred-year span is somewhat inaccurate since the author refers both to the Risorgimento–that began well before 1861–and to the Economic Miracle (1958–1963)–that technically did not end in 1961. Those expecting to read a chronological history of an Italian medieval city from Italian unification (1861) to the inception of the Economic Boom may question why the book also offers insights from the 1700s through to the 1980s.

The history of Siena is presented as a model to explain Italian medieval cities and their transformation over time, granting special attention to the themes of continuity with the past, the relationship between the city and the countryside (rapporto città / campagna), the monopoly over the land, and the aristocracy guiding the city. While the Introduction (Premessa) states that ‘Siena è una città non dissimile da molte altre [Siena is a city that is not different from many others]’ (p. 8), it is not exactly clear for which cities Siena’s history is paradigmatic, although Cardini demonstrates that Siena eventually went through the same changes as were occurring at a national level, at least during the twentieth century. A clearer theoretical framework would have helped the book make a greater contribution to historiography, while helping readers understand the terminology linked to the term ‘paradigm’ and to the chronology expressed by the paratext.

The book is divided into nineteen chapters of varying length (some of them are as short as five pages, while others extend to 35 pages) and internal organisation, with chapters 2, 5, and 7 being organised around one to ten sub-chapters. While most of the chapters include detailed footnotes, others feature none (chapters 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, and 11), though they often include unreferenced quotations, so it is difficult to track them back to their primary sources. A further feature of the book is that it follows a thematic rather than chronological order. Within each chapter, one can retrace the chronology promised in the title, but the lack of internal organisation and the repetition of entire paragraphs (see pp. 9 and 282, 25 and 56, 39 and 282, 47 and 130) can lead the reader to experience a sense of déjà vu, or, to be more precise, of déjà lu. Due to this organisation, the book is best accessed as a reference where the individual chapters can be read separately. Such a reading and use renders the book more manageable and appealing albeit to a very specific readership, namely readers who feel close to Siena and its province, or historians of modern history interested in a case study such as this.

The book analyses the history of Siena from multiple perspectives, using different sources, including newspapers and journal articles, and excerpts from literary works by writers from Siena (such as Federigo Tozzi) or by non-Italian writers, such as the American Nathaniel Hawthorne, or the British Arthur Simmons. Cardini examines religious and political institutions, including the political press and various political forces, such as socialists, communists, and Christian Democrats. Beyond looking at the economy over time (characterised by a continuity with the past that Cardini defines in terms of ‘deindustrialisation’: p. 9), the author considers the role played by the trade unions and how the construction of the railroad made Siena less isolated, while also looking at agriculture and the mezzadria, and delving into the local banking institutions such as Monte de’ Paschi. Cardini presents in-depth reflections on the University of Siena and the impact that its press, students and professors had upon the city, and how they contributed to Italian history during the Risorgimento and the First and Second World Wars. Three entire chapters and parts of others are also dedicated to prominent Italians who studied at the University of Siena (such as Carlo Rosselli), or important Siena-born personages who contributed to Italian history, such as Mario Bracci and Mario Delle Piane.

The greatest contribution of the book, and its foremost strength, is in its vision of Siena as part of modern history (1870–1960), which is conventionally defined by three elements, as Cardini reminds the reader: industrialisation, mass society, and the construction of the modern state (p. 7). Within this characterisation, Cardini views the city as emblematic of the relationship between the city and the countryside, and he uses this contrast not only to evaluate the extent that the countryside influenced the process of modernisation (p. 8), but also to question whether Siena’s historical transformation reflects changes at the Italian national level, or if they are, instead, particular to a medieval city that seems to have transited, intact, from the sixteenth century to the nineteenth century, when industrialisation should otherwise have taken place there together with the formation of socialist parties. Through an analysis of the various political forces and institutions of the city, Cardini demonstrates that ‘la tesi che la scarsa industrializzazione, la scarsa formazione del proletariato abbiano ostacolato la costituzione del Partito Socialista non risulta fondata. […] La diffusione del sindacalismo e del socialismo a Siena è sostanzialmente al passo con la situazione nazionale [the thesis that the limited industrialisation, [and] the scant formation of the proletariat hindered the formation of the Socialist Party is unfounded. […] The diffusion of syndicalism and of socialism in Siena occurred at substantially the same pace as national developments]’ (p. 8). And, by following Italy’s national pace, Siena was transformed into a modern city in the same way as other Italian cities between the 1950s and 1960s, proving to be less paradigmatic than imagined, especially since it retained its medieval connotation for centuries.