The View from Vesuvius: Italian Culture and the Southern Question

"This may well be the most complete and fascinating historical investigation of the myths and stereotypes through which European elites have observed and judged the south of Italy in the modern era."--Piero Bevilacqua, University of Rome "A tour de force exploration of how the idea of the south of Italy - the Southern question - developed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Europe and Italy. Nelson Moe's book is a provocative reassessment of an old question, newly conceived and dictated by larger ideological and political needs that extend far beyond the geographic borders of the Italian nation."--Judge, Scaglione Publication Award, Italian Literary Series