The Thousand

Garibaldi, Giuseppe, 1807-1882Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.8

Word count: 585K words
Chapters: 59

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.I Mille by Giuseppe GaribaldiAuthor: Garibaldi, Giuseppe, 1807-1882,Language: Italian, Class: DG: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Italy, Vatican City, Malta, Release Date: Jan 17, 2010

Editor's review

I Mille is Garibaldi's own account of the expedition of the Thousand volunteers he led to Sicily, a key episode in the Italian unification movement. The original is in Italian and falls under DG, Italian history. Its core value lies in being a first-hand source: the author was both the planner and a participant, and his narrative carries a strong personal perspective and the passion of the era, giving readers direct access to the atmosphere of the nineteenth-century Risorgimento. The text is not a rigorous modern historical work but a memoir with a polemical edge; its descriptions of marches, battles, and political judgments have documentary value. For readers studying Italian unification, military history, or Garibaldi's life, it is an irreplaceable primary source. Reading it requires Italian and is best accompanied by general historical background to distinguish subjective elements in the narrative. As a public-domain ebook, it suits course reference or source comparison rather than introductory reading.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Italian majors who need to read nineteenth-century historical texts in the original
Researchers of Italian unification history seeking Garibaldi's first-hand account
Military history enthusiasts interested in the organization and operational details of the volunteer expedition
Biography readers with historical background who want Garibaldi's own perspective

Not a good fit for

General readers who do not know Italian and can only read Chinese translations
Beginners seeking an objective, neutral general history
Casual readers who prefer light, story-driven reading

Reading tips

Read a short history of the Italian unification movement first to establish a timeline before tackling the original
Read in segments following the expedition's progress, checking a map after each segment to trace the march route
Pay attention to the author's judgments on the political situation and allies' attitudes, distinguishing personal account from historical fact
Compare with later historians' works to appreciate the difference between first-hand narrative and secondary research

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a work of historical research or a memoir?

It is closer to a participant's own account. Garibaldi narrates the expedition of the Thousand as a participant, combining memoir and polemic; it is not a historical monograph in the modern academic sense, so its subjective perspective should be kept in mind.

What language background is needed to read this book?

The original is in Italian, so some Italian reading ability is required. If you can only read Chinese, you may look for a Chinese translation or related studies, though the flavor and detail of the original will be lost.

Can I read it without knowing Italian history?

It will be difficult. The book involves many nineteenth-century Italian political factions, place names, and personal names; without background knowledge it is hard to follow the narrative logic. It is advisable to first acquire a basic outline of the unification movement.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Garibaldi, Giuseppe, 1807-1882 Author

Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807–1882) was a military commander and political figure of the Italian Risorgimento, and is also an author represented in this Chinese-language book database. The library currently holds eight of his works, including autobiographical memoirs such as Memorie: Edizione diplomatica dall'autografo definitivo and Memorias de José Garibaldi, narratives set against the volunteer forces and the Expedition of the Thousand such as I Mille and Cantoni il volontario, and historical-political novels such as Clelia: Il governo dei preti and Rule of the Monk. These works mostly draw on the nineteenth-century Italian unification movement, bearing a clear political stance and the stamp of personal experience, and possess both literary narrative and historical value. Public information on the details of his life is limited, and this introduction is based only on the works held in the library.