More fun trivia about Garibaldi: he was elected to the french parliament, and he caused a stir when he showed up wearing his signature poncho rather than formal clothes. He was also the only french commander in the Franco Russian war to capture a Prussian flag.
Also, he was supposedly invited to fight in the American civil war but refused since he couldn't get the level of command he wanted, although there was a Garibaldi Guard in that war.
Queen Victoria wrote in her diary , about Garibaldi's visit to London, that most of the elite was far too fascinated with him. During the same visit, the servants at the house he was staying sold the water he used to wash himself to collectors.
"If an entire race of human beings, subjugated into slavery by human egoism, has been restored to human dignity, to civilization and human love, this is by your doing and at the price of the most noble lives in America."
I think the most hilarious fun trivia about him -being the unifier of Italy- is that Nice named a square after him in 1870, thus 10 years after _splitting_ from Italy and joining France. And then to add insult to injury at his death the city decided to put a statue of him into the square. So now he stands on a square in France which actually during his lifetime was Italy. Must hurt him every day ;)
You can’t get to those feats with good looks alone. This guy was rizzing [1] as hell when he was in his prime!
[1] Rizz: from the word charisma. As I understand what it means: being amazingly charismatic towards your romantic interests in order to start a conversation with them and ultimately seduce them. It’s similar to the word game in that sense. Younger people seem to use the word rizz nowadays.
Other than being defined as "sexy" this article doesn't add much more than what one would have learnt at school in Italy.
There are so many aspects which are more recently brought him about his campaign (i.e. Making deals with local lords in the south, which allowed today's mafia families to de facto remain in power).
So, if you think this article was interesting, do go dig a bit deeper as it's rather shallow.
I posted it, and agree that it's shallow. I reckon a majority of people outside Europe have never even heard of Garibaldi - as much as that might appall an Italian. The article may be clickbait, but now the reader knows.
Just to offer food for thought, some people in the south of Italy still regard him as a Sardo/French invader and do not buy the “national hero” persona that garibaldi got attributed after the unification.
The article gives the impression "Italy" was always a nation in the making for all of history, just waiting to "unify". It talks of a "national rebirth".
But it's an invention. It never previously existed. Yes the penisula was referred to as Italy for a long time and the language is shared across the area and there are cultural similarities. But none of that automatically makes a nation - you don't have to think hard of counter examples. History could have panned out differently. It still could.
I think the bourgeoisies have been enormously successful in giving the impression that these nation states, whether it be Italy or Germany, or India, etc, that they're inevitable, they're permanent and anything else is a perversion. And Garibaldi was one such whose brilliance was to forge a nation so quickly from so many disparate states.
I have happy memories of the struggle to open the Trotsky boxes. In my house we used to have them with cocktails, so it was easiest to just pull out the bar tools and hack away.
I know little more than what is written in Giovanni Guareschi’s work. But he feels more like the Napoleon of Notting Hill. I wonder where Chesterton got his inspiration from…
He's a unique figure. Running across the world, finding himself constantly drawn to battles for the freedom of this or that group, he had a penchant for winning military campaigns that were then politically squandered by the people he trusted. A committed republican at a time when it was a revolutionary and scandalous position, he won half of Italy for a king he didn't like (and who really didn't like him) and then effectively self-exiled. More than once, he had to be held back by aristocratic leaders scared by his "uppity" plebeian success. And he was as popular as the Beatles - all over Europe, men wanted to die for him and women wanted to run away with him. The difference between him and Napoleon (the real one from Corsica, not Notting Hill) was that he sincerely never wanted to rule anything or anyone.
I can imagine he’s mentioned a lot in Don Camillo since the communist and socialist parties in the first republican election of Italy joined in a coalition called “the Garibaldi front”, but Garibaldi himself was already long dead by then.
stalin's pictures were photoshopped when he was in power, he was actually quite ugly. napoleon similarly was ugly looking but had himself painted as a chad after he betrayed the revolution
More fun trivia about Garibaldi: he was elected to the french parliament, and he caused a stir when he showed up wearing his signature poncho rather than formal clothes. He was also the only french commander in the Franco Russian war to capture a Prussian flag.
Also, he was supposedly invited to fight in the American civil war but refused since he couldn't get the level of command he wanted, although there was a Garibaldi Guard in that war.
Queen Victoria wrote in her diary , about Garibaldi's visit to London, that most of the elite was far too fascinated with him. During the same visit, the servants at the house he was staying sold the water he used to wash himself to collectors.
Re: the civil war, here's a letter Garibaldi wrote to Lincoln, congratulating him on the Emancipation Proclamation
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/primary-sources/giuseppe-...
I think the most hilarious fun trivia about him -being the unifier of Italy- is that Nice named a square after him in 1870, thus 10 years after _splitting_ from Italy and joining France. And then to add insult to injury at his death the city decided to put a statue of him into the square. So now he stands on a square in France which actually during his lifetime was Italy. Must hurt him every day ;)
Damn!
He has mad game, holy hell.
You can’t get to those feats with good looks alone. This guy was rizzing [1] as hell when he was in his prime!
[1] Rizz: from the word charisma. As I understand what it means: being amazingly charismatic towards your romantic interests in order to start a conversation with them and ultimately seduce them. It’s similar to the word game in that sense. Younger people seem to use the word rizz nowadays.
Slight typo - it was the Franco-Prussian war of 1870.
There's a character in Babylon-5, the sci-fi TV series of the 90s, also named Garibaldi. Professional hater of authority.
Other than being defined as "sexy" this article doesn't add much more than what one would have learnt at school in Italy.
There are so many aspects which are more recently brought him about his campaign (i.e. Making deals with local lords in the south, which allowed today's mafia families to de facto remain in power).
So, if you think this article was interesting, do go dig a bit deeper as it's rather shallow.
I posted it, and agree that it's shallow. I reckon a majority of people outside Europe have never even heard of Garibaldi - as much as that might appall an Italian. The article may be clickbait, but now the reader knows.
Just to offer food for thought, some people in the south of Italy still regard him as a Sardo/French invader and do not buy the “national hero” persona that garibaldi got attributed after the unification.
The thing is: even ignoring that campaign, Garibaldi was successful elsewhere and mostly coherent in his political positions.
So really, the nostalgics of Bourbon rule are just the Italian equivalent of American Confederates: they just never got over the fact they lost.
The article gives the impression "Italy" was always a nation in the making for all of history, just waiting to "unify". It talks of a "national rebirth".
But it's an invention. It never previously existed. Yes the penisula was referred to as Italy for a long time and the language is shared across the area and there are cultural similarities. But none of that automatically makes a nation - you don't have to think hard of counter examples. History could have panned out differently. It still could.
I think the bourgeoisies have been enormously successful in giving the impression that these nation states, whether it be Italy or Germany, or India, etc, that they're inevitable, they're permanent and anything else is a perversion. And Garibaldi was one such whose brilliance was to forge a nation so quickly from so many disparate states.
It's amazing how many Italian dictators had biscuits named after them.
You've got the Garibaldi of course, you've got your Bourbon, and you've got your Peek Freens Trotsky assortment!
I have happy memories of the struggle to open the Trotsky boxes. In my house we used to have them with cocktails, so it was easiest to just pull out the bar tools and hack away.
(Oh the embarrassment. My ears are burning)
It's weird to remember Garibaldi as a dictator, as though he were similar to Mussolini or Hitler. That said, he was one, for a few months in 1860.
I know little more than what is written in Giovanni Guareschi’s work. But he feels more like the Napoleon of Notting Hill. I wonder where Chesterton got his inspiration from…
He's a unique figure. Running across the world, finding himself constantly drawn to battles for the freedom of this or that group, he had a penchant for winning military campaigns that were then politically squandered by the people he trusted. A committed republican at a time when it was a revolutionary and scandalous position, he won half of Italy for a king he didn't like (and who really didn't like him) and then effectively self-exiled. More than once, he had to be held back by aristocratic leaders scared by his "uppity" plebeian success. And he was as popular as the Beatles - all over Europe, men wanted to die for him and women wanted to run away with him. The difference between him and Napoleon (the real one from Corsica, not Notting Hill) was that he sincerely never wanted to rule anything or anyone.
That description fits Che Guevara too. Who, coincidentally, also was considered to be incredibly handsome.
Which of Guareschi’s work is about Garibaldi?
I can imagine he’s mentioned a lot in Don Camillo since the communist and socialist parties in the first republican election of Italy joined in a coalition called “the Garibaldi front”, but Garibaldi himself was already long dead by then.
> how many Italian dictators had biscuits named after them.
So, how many?
Well, it seems Garibaldi biscuits were genuinely named after this guy. However Bourbon was named for the House of Bourbon, a French royal family.
I'm discounting the Peek Freens Trotsky assortment because Trotsky was, of course, Russian.
So, one. Which is still more than you might expect.
Also, Trotsky was only a only a butcher and repressor, never a dictator, as he didn't held power.
Garibaldi wasn't a dictator.
While it's misleading to characterize him as a dictator without further context, he momentarily was.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictatorship_of_Giuseppe_Garib...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11CvBKpKbn8
from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bambi_(The_Young_Ones)
has the author never seen a young che guevara, fidel castro, or joseph stalin?
stalin's pictures were photoshopped when he was in power, he was actually quite ugly. napoleon similarly was ugly looking but had himself painted as a chad after he betrayed the revolution
Ok about Che, but Fidel and Stalin were nothing to write home about. That obviously didn't stop them from having loads of women, of course.
[dead]
‘Garibaldi’ is the German word for pressure cooker!
Considering how he was a thorn in the side for Austrians, the pun is almost apt.
? It is? Which part of Germany?
None. That’s a bad pun.
I love bad puns but this one escapes me. Help?
Garen means cook, bald means soon, I guess a pressure cooker cooks your food quickly (soon)?
Nothing bad about this pun then.
Edit: and thank you, of course. :)
Ouch!