Spencer M. Di ScalaVittorio Emanuele Orlando: Italy. (Makers of the Modern World.) London: Haus Publishing. 2010. Pp. xiv, 303. $19.95

The volume under review is part of a series dedicated to the post‐World War I Paris Peace Conference and the statesmen involved with it. It provides an overview of the political history of Italy during the time between Giovanni Giolitti and Benito Mussolini, as well as a biography of Vittorio Emanuele Orlando, one of the most important exponents of liberal Italy, who has received little attention from historians.

Spencer M. Di Scala sets out to revise certain misjudgments the Allies made about Italy during World War I, which put a strain on Italy's position during the peace talks, and which, according to Di Scala, characterize English‐language historiography to this day. One of these assumptions is that Italy betrayed its allies with its neutrality, negotiated with both sides, and in the end sold itself to the highest bidder. The Triple Alliance,...