The new issue of ARO opens with a question that already serves as its guiding principle: Can we still afford to interpret history through the lens of a few dominant figures? The title of the Forum, William I: An Underappreciated Emperor? - dedicated to a figure who has long remained in the background of the narrative of the German Empire - introduces a question that is both historiographical and methodological: To what extent does our interpretation of the past depend on the hierarchies inherited from historiography? And what happens when new sources, new questions, and new perspectives lead us to reexamine an established narrative? The books by Frederik Frank Sterkenburgh and Jan Markert shed light from different angles on the genesis of political decisions, the relationship between sovereign and government, the public construction of monarchical authority, and the role of informal networks, communication, and self-representation. The figure of Empress Augusta, brought to life by Susanne Bauer through the extensive network of her correspondence, also helps broaden our perspective, inviting us to look for politics even beyond the institutional settings where we are accustomed to recognizing it.

Reflection on research continues in the section Theory, Methodology, Teaching, where the focus is no longer merely on how to interpret the past, but also on the tools used to impart the skills necessary to do so. In a context marked by the ever-increasing speed of information flow and a profound transformation in our relationship with knowledge driven by digital technology, the teaching of history therefore becomes an integral part of the reflection on the historian’s craft. It is perhaps precisely this focus on method that allows us to bring together contributions that are only seemingly distant from one another. In the comparative history of revolutions, for example, Donald Sassoon urges us not to identify revolution solely with the moment of insurrection: political transformations are layered processes in which crises, violence, transitions, and the establishment of new equilibria intertwine over time spans far broader than those fixed by conventional memory. A long-term perspective also recurs in David N. Livingstone’s history of climate, which analyzes the relationships between environment, health, wealth, and war while avoiding any form of determinism. Here, too, the point is not to identify a single cause, but to understand how different factors interact and how human beings have interpreted the climate over time.

The Longue durée section addresses issues such as sustainability, examined through the policies of forest resource management and exploitation promoted by the Iberian monarchies. The Atlantic Italies, on the other hand, portray the peninsula as part of a multipolar world, traversed by the circulation of people, capital, goods, knowledge, and cultural forms. The “Italies” that emerge from these studies do not, therefore, appear as static peripheries, but as nodes in broader networks, embedded in processes of exchange and interaction that continually redefine their role.

The Early Modern History section also confirms this plurality of scales and perspectives. Fairs and cities, treaties and diplomatic practices, apocalyptic beliefs, shifts in taste, witch hunts, food rituals, and cultures of power compose a landscape in which grand structures are constantly intertwined with everyday practices.

As usual, the issue concludes with the Contemporary History section, which brings together contributions dedicated to equally diverse themes and contexts: from the Sardinian-Piedmontese consular network in the Ottoman Levant to the relationship between Church and State in Brazil; from the political career of Urbano Rattazzi to the controversy over Catholic fundamentalism; and from the history of science at the Museo Galileo to Italy’s environmental policies in the post-World War II era. This variety of topics once again reflects the multiplicity of perspectives through which the past can be examined.

All the reviews presented here are not merely tools for bibliographic guidance. They are forums for historiographical debate. Reviewing means engaging with an interpretation, verify its sources, discuss its categories, acknowledge its contributions, and identify its limitations. Above all, it means keeping the scholarly conversation open. This, ultimately, is what we hope readers will find in the pages of this issue: not definitive answers, but good questions; not a history already written once and for all, but a discipline capable of revisiting its subjects, changing scales, crossing boundaries, and questioning its own certainties.

As always, our thanks go to the authors of the reviews, the editorial board, and those who quietly handle the editing of each issue: a collective effort that makes these exercises in dialogue possible, issue after issue.

Enjoy the read.

Katia Occhi

Editorial March 2026

We are delighted to open the first issue of ARO 2026 with some special news: we welcome our new co-editor, Petra Terhoeven. We would also like to thank the outgoing co-editor, Gabriele Clemens, for her invaluable work over the past three years. Finally, we extend a warm welcome to the new members of the ARO Team: young colleagues who are joining us and will bring new energy and ideas. Read more...

Editorial September 2025

The second issue of “Annali.Reviews.Online” of 2025 opens with a forum dedicated to Sergio Luzzatto's Dolore e Furore. Una storia delle Brigate Rosse, reviewed by John Foot and Davide Serafino. The book provides an in-depth look at the city of Genoa — its streets, factories, neighborhoods, and schools — demonstrating how the urban and social environment shaped radicalism and violence. Luzzatto combines documentary research, interviews, and historical reflections, never shying away from the ethical and methodological questions concerning the role of the historian and the relationship between words and actions. Read more...

Editorial March 2025

It is with great pleasure that we present the new issue of «Annali.Reviews.Online» 2025/1, the digital journal of the Italian-German Historical Institute of the Fondazione Bruno Kessler.

We live in an era in which access to knowledge should be a universal right. With this spirit in mind, our journal was founded in 2018 as a space dedicated to the critical review of history books, freely accessible to everyone. We believe that historical knowledge should not remain confined within academic walls but should circulate freely, enriching public debate and providing tools to better understand the present through the past. Read more...

Editorial September 2024

The new issue of ARO 2024/2 opens with a FORUM dedicated to the events of urban planning in Europe, the central theme of the volume edited by Max Welch Guerra, Abdellah Abarkan, María A. Castrillo Romón, and Martin Pekár, European Planning History in the 20th Century: A Continent of Urban Planning (New York, 2023), reviewed by Marika Fior and Christoph Strupp. Read more...

Editorial March 2024

Dear readers, the first 2024 issue of «Annali.Reviews.Online» opens with the Forum “Religion and Social History in the Early Modern Period” dedicated to two important volumes, Sacre metamorfosi. Racconti di conversione tra Roma e il mondo in età moderna by Chiara Petrolini, Vincenzo Lavenia, and Sabina Pavone and Catholic Spectacle and Rome's Jews. Early Modern Conversion and Resistance by Emily Michelson. Read more...

Editorial September 2023

Dear readers, we are pleased to present to you the September edition of “Annali.Reviews.Online”, the last issue of 2023. It opens with an interesting Forum devoted to the book of Marco Armiero, Roberta Biasillo, and Wilko Graf von Hardenberg, La natura del duce. Una storia ambientale del fascismo, reviewed in the Italian edition (published by Einaudi) by Simona Leoni Boscani (Bern) and in the English edition Mussolini’s Nature (published by MIT Press) by Anna Koch (London). Read more...

Editorial May 2023

The new issue of "ARO" (Annali Reviews Online) 2023/2 inaugurates a new season for the Italian-German Historical Institute at the Bruno Kessler Foundation, with the renewal of its governing bodies. Read more...

Editorial 2021

The journal «ARO» (Annali Reviews Online) was established in 2018 with the aim of promoting the dissemination of research and fostering the transnational dialogue between historical science specialists. Read more...


Editorial 2018

"Annali.Reviews.Online" (ARO) is a new electronic journal devoted entirely to book reviews in keeping with a trend that is becoming widespread in international scientific publishing. Read more...