Beyond National Borders; Italian Patriots United in the name of Giuseppe Mazzini: Emilie Ashurst, Margaret Fuller and Jessie White Mario

FALCHI, FEDERICA

2015-01-01

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Abstract

This article looks at the extent of women's participation in the Italian Risorgimento. In particular, the lives and works of Ashurst, Fuller and Mario, three of its female protagonists, are analysed in order to comprehend the reasons why a number of foreign intellectuals took the cause of the Italian Risorgimento to heart and actively campaigned to support the birth of the Italian state. A close examination of Mazzini's writings and personal letters reveals how, thanks to the democratic force of his ideas, he won the trust of many women in whose role he recognised the same social and political worth ascribed to men.