Stampa locale e socialità nei circondari dell’Italia liberale

The chapter offers a survey of the public events connected to the development of sociability in late Nineteenth Century Italian arrondissements, through the mirror of local newspapers. It intends to show to what extent medium and small cities, as well as big rural boroughs adopted the urban model of sociability in order to integrate into the national framework and to elevate local communities to the cultural and civic standards expected of a modern nation State, building at the same time a consistent self image. These sociable public activities became also the means by which political forces sought consent in the peripheries, leaning onto medium level chief towns.