Politics of Sacrifice

This book offers an original and comprehensive study of the memory of theRogo di Primavalle, a fatal arson attack on the home of a far-right family on16 April 1973. Perpetrated by members of the militant left group PotereOperaio, this was the first attack on a domestic space during Italy's Years ofLead. Through analysis of media coverage, books,and social media;observation of commemoration ceremonies;visits to sites of memory;andoral history interviews conducted by the author,The Politics of Sacrificeargues that memory of the Rogo di Primavalle has been instrumentalisedby neo-fascist groups over the past 50 years. Drawing on contemporarytheoretical debates relating to public and private memories, King connectsthe construction of a narrative of sacrifice to challenges faced by the institutional far right from the time of the Movimento Sociale Italiano inthe 1970s, Alleanza Nazionale in the mid-1990s,and Fratelli d'Italia today.With the far right on the rise in Italy and abroad, the book identifies thecharacteristics of remembering that define far-right memory culture andinvestigates the role of memory in building support for the far right overtime.