After the Second World War, Italians engaged in the economic and physical reconstruction of their nation faced the additional burden of trying to understand the significance of the recent past.  Which elements of national history and national identity would provide the foundation for a new republic?  Whether rebuilding city centers, restructuring state administrations, or establishing a new position in international affairs, reconstruction in post-war Italy often meant focusing on the need to push forward with a new vision of Italian modernity at the expense of a public reckoning over the social and political legacies of the fascist regime.  A return to normalcy and a goal of speedy recovery defined the politics of reconstruction throughout Western Europe; it was, one could argue, the source of European resiliency in the face of potential paralysis.  Covering issues ranging from the failure to purge state officials to the physical reconstruction of shopping centers in Milan, the papers collected here bring together historians contributing new research into a variety of ways Italians in particular confronted this European emphasis on reconstruction.  In all of the papers, we ask what were the consequences of historical memory in post-fascist Italy?  How do those consequences continue to inform Italian politics and Italian identity today?