A first and revised version of Chapters 1 and 2 had been discussed at the seminar of the Italian Academy of Columbia University of New York, where I was Alexander Bodini Research Associate Fellow in Culture and Religion in the autumn of 2008, and later published in Constellations: An International Journal of Critical and Democratic Theory 16, no. 4 (December 2009): 615–634. Chapter 3 develops a hypo thesis I discussed at the Université de Grenoble II, in May 2007, on the occasion of the international symposium Antisémitisme national et internationalisation de la question antisémite. Italie fasciste et France de Vichy, in the framework of a research project funded by the Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah of Paris. Chapter 4 originates from some reflections I developed, at the invitation of Gianni Sofri, in January 2006, on the occasion of the “Giorno della memoria” (Day of remembrance) held by the City Council of Bologna. Chapter 5 takes up some ideas discussed at the conference Storia, verità, diritto (History, truth, the law) organized by the Società Italiana per lo Studio della Storia Contemporanea (Italian society for the study of contemporary history) and by the Giunta Centrale per gli Studi Storici (Central committee for historical studies) of the Università di Roma–La Sapienza, in April 2008. The manuscript is finally the result of a dialogue with Carlo Ginzburg, which took place on the occasion of the seminar held by the Department of History of the Università di Pisa, in April 2008, Il paradigma indiziario (quasi) trent’anni dopo (The circumstantial paradigm [almost] thirty years later).
I record my sincere thanks to Carlo Ginzburg, Ira Katznelson, Nadia Urbinati, Stathis Gourgouris, Andrew Arato, Federico Finchelstein, Neni Panourgia, Andreas Kalyvas, Marie-Anne Matard, Gilles Pécout, Fabio Levi, Stefano Levi Della Torre, David Bidussa, and Guri Schwarz; the conversations I had with them on specific topics at different stages of the composition of the book were illuminating and precious.