Abstract

In recent time the revival of iconoclasm all over the world - from the attacks to archaeological sites to domestic protest targeting disputed monuments of a now divided memory - has been matched by an improved historiographical sensibility. Thanks to the contribution of different disciplines and approaches, the «long 19th-Century» provides a promising laboratory where historians and historians of art can newly test their sources in search for the multiple meanings implied by iconoclastic gestures. From late 18th-Century Revolutions up to pre-WWI Spain and England, passing through the age of French Restoration and of 1848 breaking experience in the Italian peninsula, actors, targets, tools, as well as practices and rituals of this «politics into action» performance are investigated by the means of selected national cases. The introductory section and single articles aim to provide some possible answers to the many questions a refreshed scholarly investigation is committed to deal with.