Professor Emeritus of Italian
Alfredo Bonadeo (1928–2011) came to the U.S. from his native Italy in 1953 to study at UC Berkeley, where he received an MBA in 1957. After preparing for a career in the business world, he soon switched career paths and returned to Berkeley, where he completed a doctorate in Romance languages and literature. In 1969 he joined the faculty at UC Santa Barbara, where he remained until his retirement in 1992. Alfredo became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1972.
Alfredo was a prolific scholar and a demanding teacher. He wrote extensively on major figures in Italian literature treating themes of great general interest, themes that are more than ever pertinent today.
The first of his seven published books was Corruption, Conflict, and Power in the Work and Times of Niccolò Machiavelli (UC Press, 1973). Not limiting himself strictly to Italian literature, his second book L’Italia e gli’Italiani nel’immaginazione romantica inglese (Naples: Società editice napoletana, 1984) focused on Byron, Ruskin, and D.H. Lawrence and their perceptions of Italy. Later books deal with the literature that arose out of WW I and the emergence of fascism in Italy, beginning with Mark of the Beast: Death and Degradation in the Literature of the Great War (Lexington, KY: Press of the University of Kentucky, 1989) and D’Annunzio and the Great War (Farleigh Dickinson University Press, 1995.) After retirement, Alfredo saw the publication of Leopardi e la religione della vita (Rome: Arcane, 2008) and Mussolini e la politica del sacrificio (Rome: Arcane, 2009), but his research increasingly focused on more contemporary issues of war and conflict beginning with Martial Valor, from Beowulf to Vietnam (Bloomington, IN: Author House, 2010). No Lessons Learned, Vietnam: The Fighting, the dying, a Legacy Replayed in the Middle East was unfinished at the time of his death, but the work was subsequently completed by Barbara Bates Bonadeo and Harry Lawton (Metairie, LA: Ewings Publishing, 2023).
Alfredo enjoyed good food and wine, nature and especially enjoyed walking and jogging on the beaches of Santa Barbara. He is survived by his wife, Barbara, and his children Sabrina and Alessandro.