Violence and great estates in the south of Italy : Apulia, 1900-1922 /

Snowden's monograph on early 20th-century Apulian social and economic conditions is more exciting than his title indicates. For those interested in Italy as a whole, his area of concern is narrow; he purposely encourages skepticism toward historical generalizations about the postunification Mezzogiorno since there was such local variation. The author stresses the miserable and virtually hopeless position of the rural laboring class of western Apulia, its frustrations, its attempts to alleviate its conditions by strikes and organization in the Giolittian liberal era, and its final defeat by the alliance of fascists and landlords. It is a sorry picture, in which the landowners, bourgeoisie, and government all come off badly in the pre-WW I era. This is history that appeals to the emotions as well as the mind. All the author's sources are Italian, mainly original. There is nothing available in English in recent historiography that deals specifically with this issue. The book is too specialized for general undergraduate use, but it would be essential for upper-division undergraduates and graduate students studying modern Italy, particularly its social history.-J.J. Baughman, Depauw University