This review considers, from three different perspectives, L’Italia come storia, a book edited by Francesco Benigno and Igor Mineo. It discusses, in the long run, the main nodes through which the exceptional nature of the case of Italy were thematized in historiography (both in positive and negative terms). The article by Valeria Galimi discusses - from the point of view of the late modern historian - the crisis of the "national history" and the prevailing interpretation in part of the historiography of Italy as an "exception". Finally, it examines the proposals and recommendations put forward in the discussed volume under review for writing of a new national history.
Keywords: Italy, exception, national history.