Transatlantic transfers. Tools and methods for an integrated approach.

After World War II, Italy was a country deeply scarred by the conflict and dictatorship that had severely compromised its built heritage and ability to recognize itself as a national community, It was imperative not only to rebuild what had been physically destroyed but also to create a new national identity through international relations, especially with the United States of America. How does one describe and reconstruct this process, which involves profoundly different roles and capacities in its transversality? It is necessary not only to involve different scholars but also to systematize them, sharing languages and methods of analysis. This proposal presents and discusses the methods, tools, and results of a four-year research project, PRINTransatlantic Transfers. The Italian Presence in Post War America 1949/1972, which has involved profoundly diverse expertise (between design and architecture, cinema and fashion, literature, industry and craftsmanship, and even the infrastructure for cultural, political and economic exchange), seeking to systematize them in the drawing of a complex and weighted map, warped by the weight of certain groups of contributions, so that it can describe the complexity of the years to which it refers, relating centres of production, landings, attitudes, material means, political patronage and diplomatic relations.