This book traces the origins, life and death of Administrative Science in Italy as an academic discipline between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It does so by combining the study of ideas, institutional history, intellectual history and social history. The Faculty of Law first introduced Administrative Science in 1875, with the aim of providing the elite with the necessary tools to distribute wealth more equally, to take care of the population and, thus, to make the young Italian State more legitimate in the eyes of the emerging masses. Law and social sciences were merged with the aim of increasing reforms, including that of creating a State of Happiness for all citizens. Throughout its 70-year existence, Administrative Science was deprived of its contents and scientific independence, and academically overshadowed by Administrative and Public law. Finally, although the liberal elites discarded the reformer project of Administrative Science even before Fascism turned everything upside down, most of the original traits of this knowledge were absorbed into Fascist corporate and totalitarian structures.

Despite the symbolic capital and the global commercial success of the Vespa scooter, there is no academic book dealing with its history, only literature produced by the company itself or by scooter enthusiasts. The origins of the Vespa are shrouded in mist, entrusted more to myth than to historical truth. Based on lengthy research carried out in Piaggio's historical archives and on an interdisciplinary approach, this volume aims to fill this gap. It shows how the Vespa took techniques from the most advanced aeronautical industries in the world, adapting and hybridizing them in an original way, and how the company disseminated its models in the transnational social space.

Despite the symbolic capital and the global commercial success of the Vespa scooter, there is no academic book dealing with its history, only literature produced by the company itself or by scooter enthusiasts. The origins of the Vespa are shrouded in mist, entrusted more to myth than to historical truth. Based on lengthy research carried out in Piaggio's historical archives and on an interdisciplinary approach, this volume aims to fill this gap. It shows how the Vespa took techniques from the most advanced aeronautical industries in the world, adapting and hybridizing them in an original way, and how the company disseminated its models in the transnational social space.