John Mackintosh Foot (born 8 November 1964) is an English academichistorian specialising inItaly.

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The son of the journalistPaul Foot and his first wife, Monica (née Beckinsale),^[1][2] he was born inLondon in 1964. Foot graduated fromOxford University with a degree inphilosophy, politics and economics in 1986 and, in 1991, gained his doctorate fromCambridge University, submitting a thesis on the socialist movements inMilan between 1914 and 1921.

From 1989 until 1995, Foot was an associate lecturer atCambridge University, organising seminars on Italian and French history during the 20th century. From 1992 to 1995, he held a Junior Research Fellowship atChurchill College, Cambridge, and he held a series of lectures at several Italian universities (Politecnico di Milano,Politecnico di Torino,D'Annunzio University of Chieti–Pescara,IULM andInteraction Design Institute Ivrea), on the themes of postwar migration movements and urban developments of the Italian cities, especially with respect to Milan. Later, he taught subjects related to the history and politics of Europe, with an emphasis on Italy, at several British universities, includingReading (1994),Keele (1995–96) andStrathclyde (1996). From 1996 to 2000, he worked in the Italian Department ofUniversity College of London (UCL), where he became a professor ofItalian history until 2004. In 2013, he moved to theUniversity of Bristol to take up the chair in Modern Italian History. He is currently^[when?] director of the South West and Wales Doctoral Training Partnership.

From 1994 to 1997, Foot was secretary of the Association for the Study of Modern Italy and was a member of its executive committee until 1999. In 1999, he was awarded the Dyos Prize in Urban History by the University of Cambridge. From 2010 to 2014, he was a co-editor, with Professor Phil Cooke, of the journalModern Italy. In 2006, he was part of the juryThe City of Cities, organised by theProvince of Milan, and in 2007 he was part of the jury for theD. H. Lawrence Prize for Travel Writing, organised by theProvince of Cagliari.

Foot has written a history of Italian football,Calcio, published in 2006 (a 2007 edition included details of Italy's 2006 World Cup victory and thecalciopoli scandal). The book was published in the US with the titleWinning at all Costs. It has also been published in Italy, with a later Italian edition updating the story to 2011. In 2006, this book came second in the prestigiousPremio Bancarella Sport book prize. His interest in the cultural history of Italian sport was continued with his well-reviewed history of Italian cycling,Pedalare, which appeared in both Italian and English. In addition, he has written a history textbook,Modern Italy, which was updated with a second edition in 2014. In 2009, he published the studyItaly's Divided Memory, which appeared in a longer Italian version asFratture d'Italia.

In 2014, Foot brought out the first critical history of the radicalpsychiatric reform in Italy – led byFranco Basaglia – which closed down the psychiatric hospitals there. The book appeared in an English edition published byVerso Books in 2015 with the titleThe Man who Closed the Asylums. This edition received reviews inNature,The Guardian,The Times Literary Supplement, theFinancial Times and elsewhere. He was invited to festivals inMantua andPordenone in 2014 and 2015 to discuss the book.

Foot has written forThe Guardian,The Times Literary Supplement, theLondon Review of Books and other publications. He has published numerous academic articles, works as a reviewer and peer reviewer for grant-making bodies, journals and publishers, and has appeared onBBC Radio 4,BBC Radio 5 Live,BBC Radio 3 and on overseas media outlets. He also writes for the Italian magazineInternazionale. He has had regular slots on Milan'sRadio Popolare radio station and was for a time based in Milan. In 2015, there was a new edition – with a new preface – ofMilano dopo il miracolo, the Italian edition of his 2001 bookMilan Since the Miracle. He also directed a documentary film,Story of a House: Piazzale Lugano, 22 (2003), which was selected for the film-maker film festival at theMilan Film Festival and has been screened in Italy and the UK.

He lives inBristol with his partner, Sarah, and his daughter, Corinna. His son Lorenzo, from a previous relationship, lives inMilan. He is a supporter ofArsenal,Plymouth Argyle andInter Milan. He also backs theWest Indies andMiddlesex incricket.

• Milan Since the Miracle: City, Culture and Identity, Oxford: Berg, 2001ISBN 978-1-85973-550-3
• Modern Italy, Palgrave Macmillan, 2003ISBN 978-0333669051
• Italian cityscapes: culture and urban change in contemporary Italy (edited with Robert Lumley), Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2004ISBN 9780859897365
• Pedalare! Pedalare!, Bloomsbury, 2006ISBN 978-1408822197
• Calcio: A History of Italian Football, Harper Perennial, 2007ISBN 978-0007175758 (aka,Winning at All Costs: A Scandalous History of Italian Soccer, Nation Books, 2007ISBN 978-1568583686)
• Italy's Divided Memory, Palgrave Mavmillan, 2011ISBN 978-0230120495
• The Archipelago: Italy Since 1945, Bloomsbury, 2018ISBN 978-1408827246
• Blood and Power: The Rise and Fall of Italian Fascism, Bloomsbury, 2022ISBN 9781408897935
• The Red Brigades: The Terrorists Who Brought Italy to its Knees, Bloomsbury, 2025ISBN 9781526645715

• 1964 births
• Living people
• Academics of University College London
• Alumni of the University of Cambridge
• Alumni of the University of Oxford
• English historians
• Foot family
• Academic staff of the D'Annunzio University of Chieti–Pescara

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use British English from February 2018
• All Wikipedia articles written in British English
• Use dmy dates from February 2018
• BLP articles lacking sources from January 2017
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• Vague or ambiguous time from May 2023