The Life and Times of Cavour in Two Volumes (Complete in two volumes)

Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1911. Fifth Impression. Hardcover. Very good +. A very good plus fifth impression (1911) of the biography of Cavour. Complete set in two volumes. Burgundy cloth with gilt title stamping on spine and gilt coat of arms on cover. Sunning to spines. Top edge gilt. Deckle page edges. Some pages uncut. Tasteful bookplate on first free end paper. Vol. 1 shows a mild snag at the top edge of the front cover. Volume 2 spine is lightly rubbed at base, with one rubbed corner. White end papers. Illustrated with maps & b/w plates, including a fine fold out map of Italy. 604 & 525 pp. including index. Octavo, 5 1/2 x 9 inches tall. Camillo Paolo Filippo Giulio Benso, Count of Cavour, Isolabella and Leri (August 10, 1810 – June 6, 1861), generally known as Cavour, was an Italian statesman and a leading figure in the movement toward Italian unification. He was the founder of the original Liberal Party and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, a position he maintained (except for a six-month resignation) throughout the Second Italian War of Independence and Garibaldi's campaigns to unite Italy. After the declaration of a united Kingdom of Italy, Cavour took office as the first Prime Minister of Italy; he died after only three months in office, and thus did not live to see Venetia or Rome added to the new Italian nation.Cavour put forth several economic reforms in his native region of Piedmont in his earlier years, and founded the political newspaper Il Risorgimento. After being elected to the Chamber of Deputies, he quickly rose in rank through the Piedmontese government, coming to dominate the Chamber of Deputies through a union of left-center and right-center politicians. After a large rail system expansion program, Cavour became prime minister in 1852. As prime minister, Cavour successfully negotiated Piedmont's way through the Crimean War, the Second Italian War of Independence, and Garibaldi's expeditions, managing to maneuver Piedmont diplomatically to become a new great power in Europe, controlling a nearly united Italy that was five times as large as Piedmont had been before he came to power." --- wikipedia