A "Homeland Religion" for educating the Italian people. The history manual by Lorenzo Bettini (1882), from didactic innovation to "sacralisation" of the Risorgimento Epic

Through the innovative and successful history manual for primary school first published in 1885 by Lorenzo Bettini I Martiri e i Fattori della Unita e Indipendenza d'Italia ("The Martyrs of Italy, and the Makers of her Unity and Independence") a new approach towards the narration of the Risorgimento epic was introduced in history teaching in primary and popular schools. The innovative character lies in the fact that the manual was, on the one hand, aimed at promoting a strong national sentiment in the younger generations by teaching the examples and stories of the Risorgimento charismatic figures; on the other hand, it reflected the new modern pedagogical and Positivist orientation both in primary teaching and in teachers' training, which would find in patriotic history itself the basic element for didactic renewal as well as the crucial tool for the nationalization of the people of the new unified Italian state.