Tuesday 10 June, 6.30pm
The Red Brigades: The Terrorists who Brought Italy to its Knees by John Foot (Bloomsbury 2025)
The author in conversation with John Dickie
The explosive story of the terrorist group who brought Italy to a standstill in the 1970s.
In March 1978, the Red Brigades kidnapped former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro, murdering his bodyguards. For nearly two months, they held him hostage while a shocked world looked on, before eventually killing him and dumping his body in the middle of Rome.
But who were this terrorist group? What did they want? And how did they continue to operate for almost twenty years, terrifying a nation from 1970 to 1988? In John Foot’s remarkable new book, we learn how they became the most formidable left-wing terrorist organisation in post-war Western Europe.
Drawing their support from the student protest movements of the 1960s, activists and workers radicalised by the ‘hot autumn’ of 1969, the Red Brigades were inspired by terrorist groups from across the world, especially in Latin America. They recognised no rules and authority other than their own, and launched a campaign of murder, kidnap, kneecapping and intimidation that paralysed Italy’s justice system and reshaped the political landscape. For a time, they were admired as freedom fighters by the Italian left and commemorated as martyrs.
Through meticulous research, Foot uncovers the true story behind the myths that have grown around the Red Brigades, highlighting the human costs of their actions, as well as their impact on Italian society. He explains how the contradictions inherent in their actions eventually led to their downfall in a series of high-profile mass trials. The Red Brigades sheds new light on the shadowy world of the brigatisti, and highlights their legacy of conspiracy, distrust and bitterness that still lingers in Italy to this day.
Book your place HERE
John Foot is Professor of Modern Italian History at the University of Bristol, UK. He is the author of several books, including Italy’s Divided Memory (2011), Calcio: A History of Italian Football (2007) and Milan since the Miracle (2001). He is also the co-editor, with Stephen Gundle, of Paul Ginsborg and the Historiography of Modern Italy: Revolutions, Revolt and Resistance (2024). John Foot was awarded the British Academy’s prestigious Serena Medal in 2019 and he is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
Professor John Dickie (born 1963) is a British author, historian and academic who specialises in Italy. He is the author of numerous books including the international best-seller Cosa Nostra: A History Of The Sicilian Mafia (2004), He is Professor of Italian Studies at UCL.