Annalisa Urbano, Antonio Varsori, Mogadiscio 1948. Un eccidio di italiani fra decolonizzazione e Guerra fredda, Il Mulino, Bologna 2019, pp. 296.

Annalisa Urbano and Antonio Varsori’s book examines a dramatic episode of the long process that led to the breakup of Italy’s colonial empire and to the United Nations decision to appoint Italy, the former occupying power, to oversee its trustee administration: the Mogadishu massacre of 11 January 1948. Urbano and Varsori investigate the origins of the massacre, its causes, protagonists and consequences, throwing into relief previous studies’ guilty silence concerning this event. (There are some exceptions: the works of Angelo Del Boca and of Giampaolo Calchi Novati, as well as previous works of Urbano and Varsori).