Disabled Men of the Great War. Research Paths in Italy and Europe

This article summarizes some of the most important researches on the social consequences of the Great War conducted in Europe since the late 1970s. In particular it deals with the problem of the disability caused by the war and its political, social and economical implications. After the war, indeed, each government had to find new solutions in order to protect the disabled servicemen and their families, helping them recover and come back to their civilian lives, so that their problems didn’t develop into political unrest. However the building of the welfare state didn’t have to be too expensive neither for those nations, which had won the war, nor for those which had lost it. Starting from Antoine Prost’s Les Anciens Combattants et la société française, which represents the first work facing this issue, the article examines similar researches carried out in France, Germany and Great Britain in order to show their results, but also their perspectives and methods. Most of them adopt a comparative perspective, which is fundamental to underline similarities and differences among the nations taken in consideration. Thanks to this new perspective, different authors have tried to explain the reason why not everywhere disabled soldiers became supporters of the right political parties, as it happened in Germany. From this point of view Italy represents an exception, because up to now only a few historians have tried to explain the support given to the Italian Fascism by the disabled servicemen of the Great War. By examining the Italian publications on the issue, the article tries to suggest new research paths, similar to those already developed in Europe.

Keywords: Great War, war disabled, war neuroses, welfare State, fascism, national socialism

, Gli invalidi della Grande Guerra. Percorsi di ricerca tra Italia ed Europa in "MONDO CONTEMPORANEO" 1/2011, pp 97-114, DOI: 10.3280/MON2011-001004