In his four-volume study, Pirotta meticulously examines Malta's twenty-year transformation from Britain's foremost Mediterranean fortress colony to sovereign State. Acclaimed for its heroic resistance to fascism during the Second World War that ostensibly bound it closer to its imperial masters, the over-populated, physically wrecked Island bereft of resources, joined the ranks of independent states in 1964. To examine the why and the how of this transformation Pirotta delved through voluminous Maltese and British documents, local and foreign archives and interviewed numerous key personalities. Analysing the complicated power game played by party, Church and trade union leaders, Pirotta reveals much that went on behind the scenes. Volume II 1955-1958 documents the radical attempt made by Dom Mintoff and the Malta Labour Party at constitutional, economic and political change that was robustly opposed by the Partit Nazzjonalista and the Church but which ultimately failed in spite of both institutions. All this took place under the watchful eye of British officials who often sought surreptitiously to direct events.
- ISBN10 9993276715
- ISBN13 9789993276715
- Publish Date 31 May 2018
- Publish Status Transferred
- Out of Print 11 June 2021
- Publish Country MT
- Imprint Midsea Books Ltd,Malta
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 558
- Language English