La Toscana nell’impero napoleonico (in Italian)

The annexation of Tuscany to the French empire was exceptionally important in the history of the Italian peninsula. The ‘French' government was to introduce methods of social control that had never before been seen in Tuscany and which would have a profound effect on the region. In his masterful two-volume book, Edgardo Donati has two main themes. The first is this attempt to introduce in Tuscany the fundamental structures of an 'administrative monarchy', with the creation and promotion of a professional class of administrators who would serve in a better-structured government. The second is a case-study of the work of Giovan Battista Nomi, the sous-prefet first of Arezzo and then of Pisa. These two areas of study (on the one hand the legislative activity, and on the other a case-study of the particular actions of an administrative elite) offer a striking vision of one of the Empire's experiments. Regime changes are never easy. In this particular case, a small kingdom was absorbed (almost overnight) by a gigantic state structure and subjected to the will of a faraway power. Admittedly, opposition, as much to taxes as to the conscription, was fierce, but eventually the region was “pacified” by a subsequent change: the arrival of the emperor's sister, Elisa, and the transformation into a grand duché.
 
This book was awarded the 2008 Fondation Napoléon history prize for a book in a language other than French.