John Foot (historian)

For other people, see John Foot.

John Mackintosh Foot (born 8 November 1964, in London) is an English academic historian specialising in Italy.

Life and career

The son of journalist Paul Foot and his first wife, the former Monica Beckinsale, Foot graduated from Oxford University with a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics in 1986, and in 1991 gained his doctorate from the Cambridge University from his submission of a thesis on the socialist movements in Milan between 1914 and 1921. From 1989 until 1995, he was an associate lecturer at Cambridge University, organising seminars on Italian and French history during the twentieth century. From 1992 to 1995, he held a Junior Research Fellowship at Churchill College, Cambridge, and he held a series of lectures at several Italian universities (Politecnico di Milano, Politecnico di Torino, University of Pescara, IULM and Interaction Design Institute Ivrea), on the themes of post-war migration movements and urban developments of the Italian cities, especially with respect to the case of Milan.

Later, he taught subjects related to the history and politics of Europe, with an emphasis on Italy, at several British universities, including Reading (1994), Keele (1995–96) and Strathclyde Universities (1996). From 1996 to 2000, he worked at the Italian Department of the University College of London (UCL), and then became, until 2004, a professor of Italian history for the same institution. In 2013 he moved to the University of Bristol to take up the Chair in Modern Italian History. He is currently Director of the South West and Wales Doctoral Training Partnership.

From 1994 to 1997, he was secretary of the Association for the Study of Modern Italy, and was a member of the executive committee until 1999. In 1999, he was awarded by the University of Cambridge the Dyos Prize for Urban History (Dyos Prize in Urban History). From 2010-2014 he was co-editor, with Professor Phil Cooke, of the journal Modern Italy.

In 2006, he was part of the jury The City of Cities, organised by the Province of Milan, and in 2007 he was part of the jury DH Lawrence organized by the Province of Cagliari.

He has written a widely acclaimed history of Italian football, Calcio, which was published in 2006 (with a new edition taking into account Italy's World Cup victory that year as well as the controversial calciopoli scandal). This book was published in the US with the title Winning at all Costs. It has also been published in Italian where the latest edition takes the story up to 2011. In 2006 this book came second in the prestigious Premio Bancarella Sport book prize. His interest in the cultural history of Italian sport was continued with his well-reviewed history of Italian cycling, Pedalare, which also appeared in both Italian and English. In addition, he has written a textbook - Modern Italy - which was updated with a second edition in 2014.

In 2011 he published a study of Italy's divided memory, which appeared in a longer version in Italian as Fratture d'Italia.

In 2014 he brought out the first critical history of the radical psychiatry movement in Italy - led by Franco Basaglia - which closed down the psychiatric hospitals there. Critically well received, this book also sold well and appeared in English with Verso publishers in 2015 with the title The Man who Closed the Asylums. This edition has received reviews in Nature, The Guardian, The TLS, The FT and many other places. He was invited to festivals in Mantua and Pordenone in 2014-5 to discuss the book.

John Foot writes regularly for The Guardian, the TLS, the LRB and for many other publications. He has published numerous academic articles, works as a reviewer and peer reviewer for grant-making bodies, journals and publishers - and has appeared on Radio 4, Five Live, Radio 3, Irish national radio, Australian Radio, Swiss TV, Italian national TV, Italian national and local radio, Brazilian TV. He also writes regularly for the Italian magazine Internazionale. He has had regular slots on Milan's Radio Popolare radio station and was based in Milan from

2015 also saw a new edition - with a new preface - of his Milano dopo il miracolo, the Italian version of Milan since the Miracle.

He has also directed a documentary film, Piazzale Lugano, 22. Story of a House (2003) which was selected for the Film-maker film festival in Milan has been screened in many settings across Italy and the UK.

He lives in Bristol with his partner, Sarah, and his daughter, Corinna. His son from a previous relationship, Lorenzo, lives in Milan. He is a supporter of Arsenal, Plymouth Argyle and Inter Milan. He also backs the West Indies and Middlesex in Cricket.

Bibliography

Selected books

• Milan Since the Miracle: City, Culture and Identity, Oxford: Berg, 2001 ISBN 978-1-85973-550-3
• Modern Italy, Palgrave Macmillan, 2003 ISBN 978-0333669051
• Italian cityscapes: culture and urban change in contemporary Italy (edited with Robert Lumley), Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2004 ISBN 9780859897365
• Pedalare! Pedalare!, Bloomsbury, 2006 ISBN 978-1408822197
• Calcio: A History of Italian Football, Harper Perennial, 2007 ISBN 978-0007175758 (aka, Winning at All Costs: A Scandalous History of Italian Soccer, Nation Books, 2007 ISBN 978-1568583686)
• Italy's Divided Memory, Palgrave Mavmillan, 2011 ISBN 978-0230120495