Abstract

The author examines the main issues emerged from the historiographical debate about subjectivity and use of new sources (autobiographies, diaries, memories, letters) and she focuses her attention on archives where all this documentation is collected. Gabrielli analyzes the different experiences and forms of mobilisation concentrating primarily on some women's diaries kept at Archivio diaristico nazionale in Pieve Santo Stefano. She highlights two features of the crucial role played by women on the home front: the public writing, that has become an instrument of propaganda and a way to commend the female work and the health care work done by Red Cross nurses. The author, in particular, examines the diaries of two Red Cross nurses and emphasizes the distance between them and the Red Cross nurse model formed during the conflict.