Palgrave Studies in Oral History / The Order Has Been Carried Out

Acknowledgments Introduction PART I Places and Times Twenty Years: Fascism and Its Discontents Acts of War PART II Resistances Via Rasella The Massacre PART III A Strange Grief: Death, Mourning and Survival in Rome Politics of Memory Born Later

Alessandro Portelli is Professor of American Literature at the University of Rome-La Sapienza. He is the author of The Death of Luigi Trastulli: Form and Meaning in Oral History; The Text and the Voice: Speaking, Writing, and Democracy in American Literature; The Battle of Valle Giulia: Oral History and the Art of Dialogue; and The Order Has Already Been Carried Out: History, Memory and Meaning of a Nazi Massacre in Rome.

"An extremely readable book. Portelli's work is to be valued not only for the light it casts on an important moment in the history of the Italian Resistance, but also for what it has to say about the history of the working classes in Rome." - Journal of Modern Italian Studies"Alessandro Portelli's The Order Has Been Carried Out is a major work by a scholar who has already helped to form the field of oral history. It is an intricate and compelling account of one of the central events of the German occupation of Rome during World War II, a partisan attack followed by a retaliatory Nazi massacre. Portelli manages to show how an historic event which is supposedly very well-known has in fact been largely hidden under layers of mystification during its constant telling and retelling." - Alexander Stille, author of Future of the Past

"Alessandro Portelli, one of the most creative interpreters of oral testimony, explores again the complex intersection of memory, history, consciousness, and ideology, this time in the context of a Nazi massacre in the city of Rome in 1944. What is so startling about the work is the subtle and respectful manner in which the voices of those for whom the memory remains a deep personal scar is interwoven with those for whom the events are simply history. Only someone with the talents of Portelli could weave this kind of textured narrative that highlights the dual nature of the interviewing experience and the ways in which such testimony acts as a text within the continuing discourse about the human condition."

- Ronald J. Grele, Former Director, Columbia University Oral History Research Office

"This is a remarkable and innovative exploration at the intersection of

personal experience, memory, and history. Portelli raises original and

profound issues in theory and practice of history-making while letting

participants speak their own minds. We join his subjects in reflecting on

what it means when loved ones die at the wrong