In the wake of the fall of the Berlin wall, and with the Communist
regimes of Eastern Europe collapsing, Italian Communist Party (PCI)
head Achille Occhetto shocked his party in 1989 by insisting that
the PCI jettison its old name and become something new. This
dramatic book tells of the ensuing struggle within the PCI, which
at the time was Italy's second-largest party and the most powerful
Communist party in the West. David I. Kertzer's vivid depiction of
the conflict brings to life the tactics that party factions
employed and the anguish of party members for whom Communism was
the core of their identity. Kertzer also tells a larger story from
an anthropologist's perspective: the story of the importance of
symbols, myths, and rituals in modern politics. Those who seek
dramatic political change, Kertzer contends, must remake history.
He recounts how those who succeeded in transforming the PCI into
the new Democratic Party of the Left effectively used ritual and
manipulated political symbols. Bringing the views of Antonio
Gramsci, Pierre Bourdieu, Michel Foucault, and other political
thinkers into his discussion, Kertzer explores theoretical issues
involving the relation between symbolism and political power,
concluding that modern politics is fundamentally a struggle over
symbols and the redefinition of history.
General
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