Il brigantaggio. Nuove prospettive di ricerca

The article analyzes the new and extensive historiography on the so-called Great Brigandage, which developed in the continental South of Italy in the early years following national unification. In line with the most recent and broader historiographical trends concerning the Nineteenth century and the Risorgimento, it highlights how brigandage is now studied within a comparative framework, alongside other cases of political-criminal violence that occurred in various geographical contexts. It is also examined as a subject of cultural history, always in close contact with primary sources, allowing for new perspectives on both individuals and institutions. These interpretative approaches are applied over the long term, moving beyond traditional chronological and disciplinary boundaries: the narrative begins in the early modern period and extends to the Twenty-first century. This methodological framework leads to innovative findings: a number of false myths and clichés are debunked-such as the idea that brigands like Crocco were social bandits who, among other things, allegedly resisted the so-called Piedmontese conquest of the Two Sicilies kingdom. In this way, the still-open research field on brigandage helps to fundamentally undermine any hypothesis of exceptionalism often attributed to the events that took place in Southern Italy after 1861.