Ben Kehoe
University of Oxford

My research looks at popular politics and popular political participation during the Italian Risorgimento: the period from 1815 to 1870 in which Italy was unified as a single state. I am interested in the ways ‘ordinary people’ – the shopkeeper, the artisan, the peasant – understood and made sense of political changes and ideas. I work with a diverse range of historical sources and artefacts, from police and court records to popular folk songs, legends and ballads and even graffiti. I find that voices from the past can be hidden in the most unlikely of places! I am a contributor to the Trusted Source project.
