Ambassador Pasquale Terracciano was deeply saddened upon learning of the demise of Professor Denis Mack Smith, the renowned British historian of Italy, who passed away on Tuesday. The Italian Ambassador paid tribute to him by commenting, “Italy will always remember Professor Mack Smith and appreciate his contribution to the study of the country’s modern history for which he developed a deep interest since his days as a young student. He inspired a younger generation of British scholars who continue his work and his books were appreciated by readers and history enthusiasts both in the Anglo-Saxon world as well as in Italy”.
Prof. Mack Smith was a Fellow of both All Souls College and Wolfson College, University of Oxford, and was known for his passionate studies of many Italian historical figures, such as Garibaldi, Cavour and Mussolini. During his prolific years as a highly regarded historian, he published books and papers, amongst which we remember the biography on Italian hero Giuseppe Garibaldi, entitled Garibaldi, A great life in brief and his single-volume Modern Italy: A Political History.
Even after his retirement in 1987, when he became Emeritus Fellow at All Souls College at the University of Oxford, Professor Smith kept writing about the Italian Risorgimento and contributing to studies on that period. In 1996 he was decorated as Grande Ufficiale dell’Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana, an honour which was conferred to him by the President of the Italian Republic.
Ambassador Pasquale Terracciano, personally and on behalf of the Italian Government, expresses his most sincere condolences to the family, colleagues and friends of Professor Denis Mack Smith.
