Italy, and the War for Italian Independence

New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company, 1973. 8vo.  200 x 130 mm., [7 3/4 x 5 1/4 inches].  638 pp.  Original brown publisher's cloth, head and tail of spine frayed, cloth boards a bit faded and marked.

First edition.  Dedicated "To all who are opposed to the aristocratic privilege of the Old Feudal Dynasties, and who are in favor of equal rights for all."  History of Italy in 33 chapters beginning with the founding of Rome and ending with the unification of the country in 1860.  Chapters 27 - 33 bring the history to modern age and provide a very detailed account of impact of the French Revolution on the cities of Italy and the gradual emancipation from French, Spanish and Austrian control as the 19th century progressed.

John Stevens Cabot Abbott (1805-1877), was historian and pedagogical writer who studied at Bowdoin College during the time of Longfellow, and received a degree from Andover Theological Seminary in 1830.  "He was a voluminous writer of books on Christian ethics, and of histories, which now seem unscholarly and untrustworthy, but were valuable in their time in cultivating a popular interest in history" (Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition)..