Bio
I’m a historian of the city of Rome, which has been my lifelong study and passion.
I’ve never lost my taste for discovery and learning, and my greatest pleasure is explaining and teaching the history of this fascinating city, to student groups as a professor and to smaller groups as an independent docent.
When I arrived in Rome for the first time in 1989, I was electrified by the city’s decadent beauty and its plurimillennial history, and chose a thesis topic that would bring me back here to do my research.
In 1999 I came to Rome to take a job at the British School at Rome as a researcher on a project called “Mapping Rome”, and I never left. I’m fully bilingual in English and Italian, and am also fluent in French, plus a reading knowledge of Latin, which is necessary for the study of this city.
One of my principal interests is the social function of art throughout the ages, which has turned me from being principally a social historian into a kind of art historian, though with a specific focus on art patronage, with particular attention to place: why this church for a family chapel? Why this saint for the altarpiece, and this artist for the commission? One effect of my research is that I see a kaleidoscope of interlinking relationships and themes throughout Roman history.
I’ve always been interested in the human aspect of Roman history, because unlike many social historians, I think that personal choices do matter and that gigantic sand mountain of thousands of individual choices steer the great movements of history over the long duration.
I love to skip from looking at the big picture to a sudden zoom into a personal microhistory. This very personal view of history strongly informs my presentation of the long life of the city of Rome.
I was born and raised in Canada but hold Finnish citizenship. My degrees at the University of Toronto were in Renaissance Studies and History.
Publications
Widely considered to be one of the chief experts in the history of Rome, I have published three books;
The Families who Made Rome, a history and a guide (London: Chatto & Windus, 2005), which was translated into Italian and Portuguese editions and was a nonfiction bestseller in Canada.
My other two books are in Italian: Roma occupata 1943-1944: itinerari, storie, immagini (Milan: Il Saggiatore, 2010), and Roma divisa 1919-1926: itinerari, storie, immagini (Milan: Il Saggiatore, 2014).
Since 2017 I’ve been been writing a single-volume urban history of Rome, a commission by the Oxford University Press (publication expected in 2024).
I have published numerous articles, including several for the online New York art and cultural magazine Hyperallergic. I reported on the election of Benedict XVI for NPR Boston and CBC Radio, and have appeared on CNN.
I’ve written, presented and appeared in various documentaries in both Italian and English. I have taught for several American universities with study centres in Rome, most recently for the University of Illinois.
Both history and guide, this fascinating book tells the stories of the noble clans who built the piazzas, palazzos and fountains we see today. Famous sites take on a new significance as the author tells the family histories with all the scandals, intrigues and power grabs.
”Marvellous...for anyone interested in delving further into one of the world's most beautiful
Tablet
and extraordinary cities, this is essential reading.
Camminare per Roma e non vedere i luoghi come sono oggi, come ce li hanno consegnati il cinema prima e poi la televisione; vederli invece com'erano negli anni venti, feriti e sanguinanti, scovarne le tracce nascoste: è questo l'obiettivo degli itinerari ricostruiti in questa guida da Anthony Majanlahti e Amedeo Osti Guerrazzi, la cui ricerca non ha lasciato inesplorato alcun palazzo, vicolo, quartiere. La Prima guerra mondiale non fu gentile con l'Italia. E con Roma in particolare. Esaurita la disponibilità di case popolari, gli immigrati e i poveri che affluivano ogni giorno nella capitale, già sovraffollata e irrequieta, costruirono baracche accanto agli acquedotti e alle vecchie torri fuori le mura. Erano agglomerati miseri, squallidi, pericolosi ai quali il governo e la nuova classe media guardavano con sospetto. L'indolente e soleggiata città dei cesari e dei papi si scrollò di dosso secoli di immobilismo con un sussulto violento, e ne risultarono spaccature profonde. La disillusione generata dalla pace di Parigi, incarnata dal mito dannunziano della "vittoria mutilata", non fece che esacerbare le divisioni e i contrasti - fra ricca borghesia e indigenti, fra studenti e forze dell'ordine -, finché nel 1919 una nuova, dolorosa lacerazione si aprì nel tessuto sociale urbano: quella del fascismo. Eppure la Storia sembra aver dimenticato le ferite che lo squadrismo inferse a Roma.
”Elegant and informative...an entertaining mix of travelogue and history.
Sunday TimesCharles Nicoll
Roma: la città eterna, la città che non importa quante volte tu l'abbia visitata o quanto tempo ci sia rimasto... non potrai mai dire di averla vista abbastanza. Questo libro è una guida turistica speciale per una storia speciale: la storia di Roma occupata. La capitale fu invasa dai nazisti dal settembre 1943 al giugno 1944. La guida è concepita in modo innovativo: accompagna i turisti che vogliano addentrarsi nella Roma occupata e presenta, allo stesso tempo, la storia, gli eventi e i protagonisti di quei tragici giorni. Organizzato in itinerari e percorsi di viaggio, la guida invita a spostare lo sguardo di turista sulla storia nascosta di Roma, sulle tracce, spesso taciute ma ancora visibili, di un'occupazione lunga e dolorosa.
”Majanlahti's book is one of the best guidebooks I've used for any city. This book is the highly crafted effort of someone who loves and who knows Rome.
Carol H. Johnsonvia Amazon
More publications
The Oxford Urban History of Rome. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press [in preparation]
Is Rome’s House of Michelangelo the Real Deal? Hyperallergic, August 23, 2021.
A Dazzling Corrective to the White-washing of Ancient Rome. Hyperallergic, July 25, 2021
In Rome, a Street Named Propaganda. Hyperallergic, October 25, 2020
A History of Disease, Faith, and Recovery in Rome. Hyperallergic, April 19, 2020
The Layers of History Behind Raphael’s Tapestries at the Sistine Chapel. Hyperallergic, February 25, 2020
“English Properties in Rome, 1450-1517”, Papers of the British School at Rome, vol LXXI (2003)