None
4 stars
Banfield tells very precisely about the rural Basilicata of the 1955, and the picture that comes out of these pages is quite appalling.
The point of view of the author is a capitalistic one, as he sees the economy and the profit as the cornerstones of a good society; moreover, being an american in Italy just for about nine months, his grasp of the local ethos surely is limited - yet other studies support the evidence of his work, as well as Levi's account of Basilicata in his "Christ Stopped at Eboli", and his analysis is undeniably true.
Being lucano myself, I heard and knew about how society and economics changed in the last seventy years, but his work - in a sense of a detached scientist with its patient - striked me. It is still relevant in my opinion, as some of the concepts of the amoral familism can …
Banfield tells very precisely about the rural Basilicata of the 1955, and the picture that comes out of these pages is quite appalling.
The point of view of the author is a capitalistic one, as he sees the economy and the profit as the cornerstones of a good society; moreover, being an american in Italy just for about nine months, his grasp of the local ethos surely is limited - yet other studies support the evidence of his work, as well as Levi's account of Basilicata in his "Christ Stopped at Eboli", and his analysis is undeniably true.
Being lucano myself, I heard and knew about how society and economics changed in the last seventy years, but his work - in a sense of a detached scientist with its patient - striked me. It is still relevant in my opinion, as some of the concepts of the amoral familism can still be perceived in the whole italian culture, politics, economy; and I am glad that its projection on the future revealed partially false.
An uneasy but fundamental reading to better understand the past of Lucania - and, hopefully, to change its future.