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Not many people know of the utterly extraordinary events that took place in a humble southern Italian town in the first half of the twentieth century - and those who do have struggled to explain them. In the late 1920s, a crippled shoemaker had a vision where God called upon him to bring the Jewish faith to this 'dark corner' in the Catholic heartlands, despite him having had no prior contact with Judaism itself. By 1938, about a dozen families had converted at one of the most troubled times for Italy's Jews. The peasant community came under the watchful eyes of Mussolini's regime and the Catholic Church, but persisted in their new belief, eventually securing approval of their conversion from the rabbinical authorities, and emigrating to the newly founded State of Israel, where a community still exists today. In this first fully documented examination of the San Nicandro story, John Davis explains how and why these incredible events unfolded as they did. Using the converts' own accounts and a wide range of hitherto unknown sources, Davis uncovers the everyday trials and tribulations within this community, and shows how they intersected with many key contemporary issues, including national identity and popular devotional cults, Fascist and Catholic persecution, Zionist networks and postwar Jewish refugees, and the mass exodus that would bring the Mediterranean peasant world to an end. Vivid and poignant, this book draws fresh and intriguing links between the astonishing San Nicandro affair and the wider transformation of twentieth-century Europe.
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Sir William Hamilton personified the age of the Enlightenment - a collector and connoisseur, amateur scientist and archaeologist, vulcanologist, anthropologist and above all a gentleman of taste and intellectual curiosity - and in Naples, one of the most fascinating stations on the Grand Tour, he had found his ideal setting.As King George III's ambassador to the Kingdom of Naples from 1764-1800, Sir William was witness to some pivotal events in European history. "The Hamilton Letters" is the first collection of his complete correspondence with the English court between 1797 and 1799. It sheds vivid light on the history of the kingdom of Naples on the cusp of the Napoleonic Wars as France and Spain jostled for control in the region as well as on the nature of power and government at the end of the 18th century. Included here is Sir William's own account of Nelson's betrayal of the Neapolitan Republic when, rather than granting the royalist leaders safe passage back to France as agreed, Nelson turned his guns on them - a hugely controversial decision, both for contemporary audiences and ever since, and one in which Sir William's own role is still hotly contested." The Hamilton Letters" offers an engaging portrait of a complex and sophisticated figure and brings a dynamic period of history to life. It is an invaluable guide to the period which will enthrall anyone interested in the colourful world of 19th-century European history.
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• Introduction: Naples, Napoleon and the Origins of the Two Italies-- PART ONE: ABSOLUTIST NAPLES--
• 1. The Ancien Regime in the South--
• 2. Projecting Reform--
• 3. Undermining the Old Order--
• 4.
• 1799: The Rise and Fall of the Republic--
• 5. Jacobins and Patriots--
• 6. The Counter-Revolution-- PART TWO: NAPOLEONIC NAPLES--
• 7. Naples in the Imperial Enterprise--
• 8. The Costs of Empire--
• 9. The Promise of Change--
• 10. A Kingdom Remodelled? The Provinces and the Capital--
• 11. Disorder--
• 12. Legacies of Empire-- PART THREE: RESTORATION & REVOLUTION--
• 13. Losing Naples--
• 14. Restoration--
• 15. Revolution-- Conclusion: States of Insecurity.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

In Naples and Napoleon John Davis takes the southern Italian Kingdom of the Two Sicilies as the vantage point for a sweeping reconsideration of Italy's history in the age of Napoleon and the European revolutions. The book's central themes are posed by the period of French rule from 1806 to 1815, when southern Italy was the Mediterranean frontier of Napoleon's continental empire. The tensions between Naples and Paris made this an important chapter in the history of that empire and revealed the deeper contradictions on which it was founded. But the brief interlude of Napoleonic rule later came to be seen as the critical moment when a modernizing North finally parted company from a backward South. Although these arguments still shape the ways in which Italian history is written, in most parts of the North political and economic change before Unification was slow and gradual; whereas in the South it came sooner and in more disruptive forms. Davis develops a wide-ranging critical reassessment of the dynamics of political change in the century before Unification.His starting point is the crisis that overwhelmed the Italian states at the end of the 18th century, when Italian rulers saw the political and economic fabric of the Ancien Regime undermined throughout Europe. In the South the crisis was especially far reaching and this, Davis argues, was the reason why in the following decade the South became the theatre for one of the most ambitious reform projects in Napoleonic Europe. The transition was precarious and insecure, but also mobilized political projects and forms of collective action that had no counterparts elsewhere in Italy before 1848, illustrating the similar nature of the political challenges facing all the pre-Unification states. Although Unification finally brought Italy's insecure dynastic principalities to an end, it offered no remedies to the insecurities that from much earlier had made the South especially vulnerable to the challenges of the new age: which was why the South would become a problem - Italy's 'Southern Problem'.
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• Introduction : Italy's difficult modernization / John A. Davis
• From the French Revolution to Napoleon / Alexander Grab
• The age of Restoration / David Laven
• Giuseppe Mazzini and his opponents / Roland Sarti
• Cavour and Piedmont / Anthony Cardoza
• Garibaldi and the South / Lucy Riall
• Politics in the era of Depretis and Crispi, 1870-96 / Christopher Duggan
• Religion and society, 1789-l892 / David L. Kertzer
• Culture and society, 1796-1896 / Raymond Grew
• Economy, society, and the state / John A. Davis.

Covering the period from the French Revolution to the end of the 19th Century, this volume sets the events leading to Italian Unification and the creation of an independent Italian state in the broader context of 19th Century European history. Challenging the view that the political failings of the Risorgimento and Italy's economic and social backwardness paved the way for fascism in the 20th century, it emphasizes how similar Italy's social and political development was to that of other modernizing European states in the same period, while explaining why Italy's experience of modernization in the nineteenth century also proved particularly difficult. Italy in the Nineteenth Century provides both the general and specialist reader with a critical, concise introduction to the most recent historical debates and perspectives.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Introduction
• Chapter One: From the French Revolution to Napoleon
• Chapter Two: The Age of the Restoration
• Chapter Three: Giuseppe Mazzini and his Opponents
• Chapter Four: Cavour and Piedmont
• Chapter Five: Garibaldi and the South
• Chapter Six: Politics in the Era of Depretis and Crispi: 1870-96
• Chapter Seven: Religion and Society 1789-1892
• Chapter Eight: Culture and High Society 1796-1896
• Chapter Nine: Economy, Society, and the State
• Further Reading
• Chronology
• Glossary
• Maps
• Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

The Short Oxford History of Italy series, in seven volumes, will offer a complete History of Italy from the early middle ages to the present and, in each period, will present the most recent historical perspectives on Italian history. This means setting Italian history in the broader context of European history as a whole. It also means questioning accepted interpretations of Italian history in each of these periods and, in particular, the idea that Italy's history has been significantly different from that of the rest of Europe. Each volume will emphasise how developments in Italy in each period are best understood as variants on broader European patterns of political, economic social and cultural change. This volume covers the period from the French Revolution to the end of the Nineteenth Century. Consisting of nine essays written by leading British and American historians, the volume shows how Italy's unexpected political unification and independence were inseparable from the impact of the broader processes of modernisation that were changing the face of Europe and the fabric of European society. The social and political tensions that fuelled the struggles for independence were rooted in Italy's difficult modernisation, which continued thereafter to threaten the consolidation of the new Italian state. But Italy's difficult modernisation did not preclude real change, and although Italy entered the twentieth century as a highly imperfect democracy it was not noticeably more imperfect, illiberal or divided than its nineteenth century European counter-parts, nor did the new challenges posed by the rise of mass society make fascism an inevitable outcome of the Risorgimento. Italy in the Nineteenth Century provides both the general and specialist reader with a critical but concise introduction to the most recent historical debates and perspectives.
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• Preface. Editors' Introduction.
• 1. Land and Labour Productivity in English Agriculture 1650-1850: Mark Overton (University of Essex).
• 2. Agriculture and Economic Growth in Britain 1870-1914: F. M. L. Thompson (London University).
• 3. Apropos the Third Agricultural Revolution: How Productive was British Agriculture in the Long Boom 1954-1973?: B. A. Holderness (University of East Anglia).
• 4. Railways and the Development of Agricultural Markets in France: Opportunity and Crisis (1840-1914): Roger Price (University of Wales at Aberystwyth).
• 5. Agriculture and Industrialization in France 1870-1914: Colin Heywood (University of Nottingham).
• 6. Italy - The Eternal 'Late-Comer'?: Paul Corner (University of Siena).
• 7. Agriculture and Industrialization: The Japanese Experience: Kaoru Sugihara (University of London).
• 8. Agriculture and Industrialization in Colonial India: David Washbrook (University of Oxford).
• 9. Soviet Agriculture and Industrialization: Mark Harrison (University of Warwick). Index.
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By setting industrialization against the background of wider processes of economic growth, recent trends in economic history have once again placed agriculture at the center of debate on the formation of modern economies. The nine essays in this volume examine the broader terms and implications of this new emphasis, and reassess the contribution of agriculture to economic growth in contexts that range from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries and from Europe to Russia and Asia.The essays are tightly focused around a set of central themes. Emphasizing how contexts of time and place have determined the relationship between agricultural change and economic growth, they explore comparatively such issues as the problems of interpretation and methodology posed by the close inter-dependence between agriculture and social organization, the critical role of political intervention in agricultural change, as well as the technical difficulties involved in measuring changes in productivity and their wider impact on economic growth. As a result the volume offers a uniquely broad but coherent and critical assessment of current trends in the interpretation of agriculture's major but complex historical role in modern economic growth.
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• Editors' Introduction.
• 1. Entrepreneurs, Managers and Businessmen in 18th Century Britain: Peter Mathias.
• 2. Labour and the Process of Industrialization in the First Phases of British Industrialization: Peter Mathias.
• 3. Women and Work in Late Victorian Britain: Pat Thane.
• 4. 'In Want of Union'-- Industrial Relations in the British Pottery Industry 1870-1930: Richard Whipp.
• 5. Management, Labour and the State in France 1871-1939: Industrial Relations in the Third Republic: Roger Magraw.
• 6. Entrepreneurs and Economic Growth: the Case of Italy: John A. Davis.
• 7. Industrial Workers, Employers and the State in Nazi Germany 1933-1945: Stephen Salter.
• 8. Employers and Workers in Japan Between the Wars: Takao Matsumura.
• 9. The Struggle for Control of the American Workplace 1920-1985: P. K. Edwards.
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This volume explores the changing relations between employers and workers in industrial production from the earliest phases of industrialization to the present day. It examines how these relations have developed in different contexts and places, and the ways in which they have influenced the process of industrialization.The book brings together a number of different approaches and the topics covered vary in theme and scope, including broad general surveys (for example, of the historical debate on the early factory masters, and of the principal trends in post-war industrial relations in Europe) and more specialist case studies. The contributors include labour, social and economic historians, and the geographical spread ranges from Europe to the USA and Japan. While each of the chapters covers major new themes, the volume's originality lies in examining the theme of industrial relations in ways that invite broader comparative thinking.
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• The mainsprings of technological progress in Europe 1750-1850, Patrick O'Brien-- resources and technology, Peter Mathias-- revisions and revolutions - technology and productivity change in manufacture in 18th- century England, Maxine Berg-- the constraints of a proto-industrial society on the development of heavy industry - the case of coal-mining in south East of France 1773-1791, Gwynne Lewis-- technology and economic growth in 19th century Italy - the case of an industrial late-comer, John A.Davia-- technical and structural factors in British industrial decline 1870 to the present, Derek H.Aldcraft-- crisis and continuity - innovation in the British Automobile Industry 1896-1986, Richard Whipp-- technology and the export of industrial culture - problems of the German-American relationship 1900-1960, Volker R.Berghahn-- technological diffusion - the viewpoint of economic theory, Paul L.Stoneman.
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This book offers a re-appraisal of the origins and nature of technological change, a subject which as long been at the heart of debates over industrialization and economic growth. How and why does technological change occur? What are the conditions that favour first the development and then the application of the new technologies? Why has successful innovation occurred in certain places and at certain times, but not in others? Is innovation a conscious, deliberate, planned and cumulative process, or is it accidental and discontinuous? What is the relationship between technology and economic growth, and between technological change and the social and political context in which it takes place? These are the questions addressed. A distinguished team of international contributors focus here on technological change in Europe, drawing upon the experiences of several countries, including England, France, Italy and Germany. The book's opening chapter provides an overview of the main causes of technological advance in Western Europe before 1870. The authors show how many of the previous accepted interpretations and commonplaces are no longer credible and that none of the single cause explanations of inventiveness and technological innovation survive scrutiny.
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• List of figures and maps-- List of contributors-- Preface--
• 1.
• 1799: the Santafede and the crisis of the ancien regime in southern Italy John A. Davis--
• 2. War and society in Napoleonic Italy: the armies of the Kingdom of Italy at home and abroad Franco Della Peruta--
• 3. The poor and how to relieve them: the Restoration debate on poverty in Italy and Europe Stuart Woolf--
• 4. Bandits, violence and the organization of power in Sicily in the early nineteenth century Giovanna Fiume--
• 5. Marriage and the family in Italy in the early nineteenth century Marzio Barbagli--
• 6. After the Revolution: bandits on the plains of the Po 1848-54 Paul Ginsborg--
• 7. Labouring women in northern and central Italy in the nineteenth century Simonetta Ortaggi Cammarosano--
• 8. Garibaldi in England: the politics of Italian enthusiasm Derek Beales--
• 9. The middle classes in Liberal Italy Adrian Lyttelton--
• 10. Francesco De Sanctis: the politics of a literary critic Denis Mack Smith-- Bibliography of Denis Mack Smith's writings on nineteenth-century Italy-- Index.
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Society and Politics in the Age of the Risorgimento contains ten essays written in honour of Denis Mack Smith by leading British and Italian specialists. The volume is intended both as a tribute to Denis Mack Smith's outstanding contribution to Italian history and as an attempt to open up wider debate on Italian society and politics in the period of the Risorgimento, bringing aspects of nineteenth-century Italian politics and social history into a comparative European context. Topics discussed in the volume include the collapse of the ancien regime in southern Italy; the Italian armies in the Napoleonic period; debates on poverty in Italy and Europe in the early nineteenth century; family and marriage; the origins of the mafia in Sicily; peasant protest in the Po valley; Garibaldi and England in the 1860s; the emergence of an Italian middle class; women workers; and the politics of the critic Francesco De Sanctis.
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• The industrial revolution - concept or reality, P.Mathias-- the new economic history, N.F.R.Crafts-- industrialization in Britain and Europe before
• 1850: new perspective and old problems, J.A.Davis-- financing the industrial revolution, P.Mathias-- transport the survival of the old besides the new, T.C.Barker-- agricultural and industrialization, P.Mathias-- population and economic change in the 18th and 19th centuries, R.Woods-- the transformation of work in European industrialization.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

This is the first volume in the new series "The Nature of Industrialization". It provides a critical review of controversy over the established interpretations of industrialization processes in Britain and Europe before 1950. This book starts off with a general critical discussion of conventional images of the industrial revolution in Britain and the relations between industrialization in England and in Europe during this period. Following essays offer more detailed analysis of five specific themes: how industrialization was financed; transport; agriculture; population; and the transformation of work under European industrialization, there is also some comparative discussion of Europe's relations with the rest of the world. This book provides an introduction to recent groundbreaking work on the nature and causes of industrialization. It is also an introduction to the series as a whole; many of the issues raised here in the context of the first industrial revolution will be taken up on a thematic and comparative basis in subsequent volumes.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)