An author who returns after a gap of thirty years to re-read his first book may be in for some surprises and may even find the experience somewhat chastening. Perhaps he will think that the subject should have been more precisely defined, or the general design could have been more persuasively arranged. Almost certainly there will be tricks of style that look awkward and some incidental judgements that might be better softened or strengthened. But this study in revolutionary politics has at least passed one test, because its Italian translation has remained in print and still evokes a positive reaction of both approval and protest. Its theme is the conflict between Cavour and Garibaldi, that is to say between moderate and radical Italian patriots. Everyone now accepts that this conflict was of crucial importance in the process which led to Italian unification, and indeed it helped to determine the kind of nation that emerged. The year 1860 saw the birth of a united Italy as the product of a clash between quite different ideas about ends and means. During six months of this year there existed two conflicting centres of policy-making in what was still a disunited country, one of them being at Turin where Cavour was Prime Minister of Piedmont, the other at Palermo and Naples where Garibaldi ruled as a revolutionary dictator. Cavour was eventually able to impose his own solution, but he succeeded only because his radical opponents first broke free from his leadership and then forced him into actions that he had neither intended nor even foreseen.