From Peasant to Entrepreneur

Links the success in Italy of small, rurally based manufacturing businesses to the processes of transformation of parts of the Italian countryside. This book argues that the involvement of peasant families with both agricultural and industrial employment produced an entrepreneurial spirit that was reflected in the development of rural industries. 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.