One year on the High Plateau

One Year on the High Plateau (original title: Un anno sull'Altipiano) is a historical novel by Emilio Lussu: set on the Asiago plateau, it is one of the major works of Italian literature on the First World War. The novel was written between 1936 and 1937 and tells, for the first time in Italian literature, the irrationality and senselessness of war, hierarchy and exasperated military discipline in use at the time. For a long time considered a faithful chronicle of the events dating back to the period spent by Lussu as an officer of the Sassari Brigade, it has subsequently been the subject of a substantial historiographic criticism, which has strongly reduced the value of the chronicle of real events, leading it to the role of historical novel. Origins Before the outbreak of the Great War, Emilio Lussu was a university student and was an active interventionist in the period preceding the declaration of hostilities. He enlisted as a volunteer together with Giuseppe Tommasi, and with the latter was destined to serve as a second lieutenant in the Sassari Brigade, a unit composed almost exclusively of Sardinians. In the ranks of this unit, Lussu became one of the most valiant and well-known officers, so much so that he earned the appreciation of his superiors and deserved during the conflict four decorations for valor in recognition of the innumerable daring actions carried out and of the influence exercised over the men under his command. After the war, Lussu founded with Camillo Bellieni the Partito Sardo d'Azione, opposing the progressive takeover of power by the fascists. Having failed an attempt at negotiation and convergence between the shareholders and the Fascists, of which he himself was a protagonist, Lussu sided with increasingly antagonistic positions, participating in the Aventine Secession after the assassination of Giacomo Matteotti. The firm hostility towards Fascism led him, when all opposition parties were suppressed, to be sentenced to five years in prison to be served on the island of Lipari. Escaped from captivity, he repaired abroad, later joining Giustizia e Libertà. In the years of exile he developed a different consciousness towards his military experience and in general on the value of the Great War, connecting it with the advent of Fascism. In the period of exile he gave body to his reflections writing first March on Rome and its whereabouts (Marcia su Roma e dintorni), and then Un anno sull'Altipiano.