John Foot is an historian specialising in all aspects of contemporary Italian history and politics. He has published ten books to date – most of which have also appeared in Italian – covering Italian football, cycling, memory, radical psychiatry, fascism and terrorism. His history of Italian football, Calcio, was a best-seller and has been called ‘the bible’ for many interested in that subject. His books have all been reviewed in the mainstream press and have remained in print for decades. He has also won book awards in Italy for two of his publications.

In the academic world he has published over 100 chapters and peer-reviewed articles.

He has held positions in various universities; Keele University; University of Strathclyde; University College London (Professor of Modern Italian History), The Australian Catholic University (Sydney – Associate Professor), the University of Rome (Visting Fellow), the University of Urbino (Visting Fellow). I have been Professor of Modern Italian History in the Italian Department in Bristol University since 2013. He is currently Chair of the Association for the Study of Modern Italy (2025-2028) and Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

He also works as a journalist and book-reviewer for The Guardian, The Sunday Times, the Italian magazine Internazionale, the London Review of Books, the Times Literary Supplement and Literary Review amongst other publications.

He has appeared often on radio and television commenting on Italian politics, sport and other topics linked to Italy – on BBC Radio Three, Four, Five live, Talk Sport, Italian national radio stations as well as news TV.

He has contributed to numerous documentaries as a presenter and researcher and consultant – including the Oscar-nominated documentary Maradona, programmes on the history of the football world cup, the Lambretta scooter, Italian psychiatry, Berlusconi and Football and many other programmes.

John Foot is often invited onto podcasts including BBC podcasts linked to the story of the cyclist Marco Pantani, a podcast hosted by the athlete and presenter Michael Johnson and many others.

He has given after-dinner speeches and one-off invited talks in many countries, in both Italian and English.

In 2025 he will be leading tours as an expert guide of Turin (a football history related tour) and of sites linked to the figure of Mussolini.

John Foot works at the University of Bristol as a professor. For further information, please visit here.