From Peasant to Entrepreneur

Anna Bull Lecturer in Italian History and Politics,University of Bath Paul Corner Professor of Contemporary Italian History, University of Sienna

'... an important study.'Business History'... this book should prove of interest not just to economists concerned with the somewhat unusual patterns of Italian economic development, but also to political scientists, historians, and sociologists.'Modern Italy'This impressive case study is a welcome addition to the body of literature on the origins and nature of the 'Third Italy' '.Italy

• Part 1 Introduction. Part 2 Peasant families and rural labour 1815-90: Grain rents, silk, and peasant poverty; Peasant families and rural manufacturing; Woman's labour and peasant survival; Family roles and peasant conservatism; A social form, a pattern of behaviour. Part 3 Agrarian crisis and the end of the equilibrium 1890-1915: The impact of crisis; From peasant-worker to worker-peasant; Family mentalities and resistence to proletarianisation; Peasants and proto-industrialisation. Part 4 War and fascism - peasant independence and new directions: The war as watershed; Postwar independence - family and freedom; The decline of the silk industry; Peasants and small businesses - the interwar experiment; Small firm foundation and "historic breaches" with the past. Part 5 Peasants and entrepreneurship - from fascism to the present: Social and economic trends; The marginalisation of agriculture; The fascist period; Postwar economic development; Como today - entrepreneurship and society; Diffused industry and political culture. Part 6 Beyond silk - Italy's model of diffused industrialisation: Small firms as an independent form of industrial organisation; The Italian model - current debates on its origins and characteristics; A reassessment of current theories - the social variables of small business performance. Part 7 Conclusions.