Abstract

This article provides a general overview of the state of the art of historiography on Italy and European integration, showing its most common features and identifying its major flaws. In doing this, it discusses some of the concepts which are most used by literature, such as "Europeanism" and "external constraint", striving to highlight their meaning and implications. It then concludes with a few suggestions for a new research agenda, which might help to bridge the main gaps, thereby overcoming its persistent isolation from the rest of historiography on contemporary Italy.