I first learned about Ada Gobetti from Charles Delzell's classic study of the Italian Antifascist Resistance. Her name appeared in a footnote to a short section on Piero Gobetti and the antifascist press, where Delzell credited Ada for carrying on her husband's ideals after his untimely death in 1926 through her activities as a translator, educator, and resistance activist. Delzell's brief but poignant mention of Ada Gobetti and her connection with the early antifascist movement in Turin sparked my interest in this young Italian woman who did “keep the torch lighted.”

A conversation with French Resistance scholar Paula Schwartz of Middlebury College and a close reading of her article about “redefining resistance” led me to question the meaning of resistance in the Italian setting. Schwartz calls for a move away from “restrictive notions of resistance.” While Schwartz confi nes her analysis to the war years in France, I have chosen to expand this redefinition of resistance to include antifascist activities throughout Mussolini's reign and World War II, as well as efforts to keep the ideals of resistance alive during the postwar period. Ada Gobetti's life story seemed an ideal case study for examining the complex phenomenon of resistance in Italy both before and after the “official” Resistance, or Resistenza, of 1943–1945. To this day, archivists, historians, and librarians work in institutes for the study of resistance located in all the major cities of Italy, collecting and publishing materials that serve as a testament to the importance of the question of resistance in understanding Italian history.

The archives of the Centro studi Piero Gobetti in Turin, Italy, founded in 1961 by Ada, her son Paolo Gobetti, her daughter-in-law Carla Nosenzo Gobetti, and several of Piero's friends, contain Ada's papers. The Centro Gobetti is located at 6 Via Fabro, the former home of Ada and Piero Gobetti. Carla Gobetti, then president of the Centro Gobetti, gave me permission to conduct research in a room filled with materials taken from Ada's home in Reaglie after she died, affectionately known by members of the staff as “Ada's room.” At the time, the room was not open to the public, and the materials were not catalogued.