From Peasant To Entrepreneur: The Survival Of The Family Economy In Italy

The conspicuous success in Italy of a highly dynamic sector of small, rurally based manufacturing businesses has attracted a considerable amount of attention throughout both Europe and the United States in recent years. This book links this development in Italy to the processes of transformation of certain parts of the Italian countryside over the last hundred years and argues that the involvement of peasant families with both agricultural and industrial employment - a constant of the situation before the First World War - produced an entrepreneurial spirit that was subsequently reflected in the development of rural industries. This study will be of particular interest to students of contemporary Italian history, but will also be of interest to those concerned with the more general question of the transformation of agricultural societies in the face of industrialisation.

The conspicuous success in Italy of a highly dynamic sector of small, rurally based manufacturing businesses has attracted a considerable amount of attention throughout both Europe and the United States in recent years. This book links this development in Italy to the processes of transformation of certain parts of the Italian countryside over the last hundred years and argues that the involvement of peasant families with both agricultural and industrial employment - a constant of the situation before the First World War - produced an entrepreneurial spirit that was subsequently reflected in the development of rural industries.