Le acque agitate della patria: L'industrializzazione del Piave (1882–1966) [The troubled waters of the homeland: The industrialization of the Piave River (1882–1966)] by Giacomo Bonan (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by:

• Le acque agitate della patria: L'industrializzazione del Piave (1882–1966) [The troubled waters of the homeland: The industrialization of the Piave River (1882–1966)] by Giacomo Bonan
• Marco Bertilorenzi (bio)

Le acque agitate della patria: L'industrializzazione del Piave (1882–1966) [The troubled waters of the homeland: The industrialization of the Piave River (1882–1966)] By Giacomo Bonan. Rome: Viella, 2020. Pp. 182.

In his compelling book Le acque agitate della patria, Giacomo Bonan recounts the historical process of the industrialization of the Piave River, which flows from the Dolomite Alps down to the Adriatic Sea. The Piave Valley became one of the most developed hydropower-generation regions in Europe, with dozens of power stations, artificial lakes, pipes and channels, dams, and barrages, which were progressively built between the late nineteenth century and the early 1960s. The Vajont Dam is perhaps one of the best-known technological structures in the area, both because it is a true feat of engineering (standing at a height of 860 feet, it is still the highest dam in Europe) and because of the tragedy that originated from a landslide that flooded the Vajont Valley on October 9, 1963, causing the death of about 2,000 people. The Vajont is only a part of the complex system of integrated water infrastructures created in order to exploit the natural resources of the region by public and private actors seeking to promote the "integrated" development of the region. According to Bonan, business interests, technocracies, and technological dreams underpinned the industrialization of the river with some consistency, despite the institutional changes that occurred during the course of Italian history: the liberal monarchy before World War I, fascism in the interwar period, and the democratic republic after-ward. During the second half of the 1960s, the hydropower development of the region was brought to an end, leaving a territory deeply transformed by this "integral" industrialization, and Italy switched to other energy sources, such as oil and gas.

Against this backdrop, the historian of technology could well be interested in underscoring the dynamics that, thanks to opportunities opened by innovations of the electric age, led to a radical transformation of an extensive region. By adopting from the works of Sara Pritchard the concept of "environmental system" to describe the Piave River, Bonan offers a multilevel analysis of the industrialization of the area, exploring the complex nexus that existed between different actors involved in the exploitation of a huge water infrastructure like the Piave River. Such analysis shows how the environment, technology, and economy are linked: from being a river used for wood transportation and irrigation in the past, the Piave gradually underwent new economic and technological development in the late nineteenth century, when the water of the river became a huge target for both investments of electrical companies and public policies. [End Page 724]

Relying on a vast corpus of documents, from both national and local archives and from business and administrative collections, Bonan explains that industrialization was characterized by the ability of the promoters of the various projects, in particular the private company Società Adriatica di Elettricità (SADE)—Italy's leading electric utility before the nationalization of electricity in 1962—to present them as being of the utmost importance for the national interest. The limits between private and public interests were blurred: while the political power of SADE was substantial (SADE's president, Giuseppe Volpi, was finance minister under Mussolini's government between 1925 and 1928), the state was an important supporter of private interests before the nationalization of energy. As in many other cases, large infrastructures and big modifications in landscapes and energy transition needed more than economic motivations, like nationalism, and followed technological dreams that were able to support private interests. Behind the common vision of its promoters, however, the industrialization of the Piave River also reveals a controversy between different economic and technological interests, which was gradually overcome during the economic development of the region, leading to a kind of energy transition as more local and less technological interests were downsized.

Marco Bertilorenzi

Marco Bertilorenzi is associate professor in economic history at the University of Padua. His research interests include history of electrometallurgy...