MAURO MACCHI, Born in Milan in 1818, Macchi attributed to his secondary school
teacher and lifelong friend, Carlo Cattaneo, his interest in issues of economic
and social progress. Unlike his mentor, however, Macchi was also close to
Mazzinian groups that were formed among the Milanese middle and lower classes
in the early 1840s. As a result of these Mazzinian connections, he was watched
by the Habsburg police and forced to seek refuge in nearby Piedmont. He
returned to Milan during the March 1848 insurrection against the Habsburg
government and played a significant role in the barricade fighting. He remained
close to Cattaneo and other republican and democratic leaders during the
revolutionary government, and he left Milan with them in August 1848.
In the early 1850s, Macchi collaborated with Cattaneo on publishing the
documentary history of the revolution in Italy. After returning to Piedmont for
a second time, he became a successful journalist, known for his polemics
against moderate liberals and Mazzinian republicans. He also became active in
the civic and political education of workers, the regulation of child labor,
and t he movement for women's rights. He championed these causes in the
democratic press and in the national parliament until his death in Rome in
1880.
Clara M. Lovett
JGC revised this file (http://www.ohiou.edu/~chastain/ip/macchi.htm) on October 20, 2004.
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© 1998, 2004 James Chastain.