Choice Review

This short book (only 133 pages including bibliography and index) is best considered the equivalent of a literature review of modern Italian economic history. The title is a bit misleading, since there is little material before 1880 and virtually none from 1820 to 1860. This is not the authors' fault; it simply reflects the dearth of material from that time. Commendable is the style of the book, which makes for easy reading. The authors, both active researchers in the field, can be accused of excessive politeness regarding the works reviewed. They take stands on the quality of certain studies, but this reviewer would have liked to see more of that kind of critique. And their most common conclusion is that more research needs to be done. On balance though, this is a fine book, and the bibliography is a gold mine. Any researcher beginning to examine Italy in the modern period could do no better than to start with it. Recommended for upper-division undergraduate through professional library collections. A. Barrett College of St. Scholastica