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The Economic History of Italy, 1860-1990. By Vera Zamagni * New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. xv + 413 pp. Figures, tables, appendixes, notes, and index. $59.00. ISBN 0-19828773-9.
This dense volume by a major scholar of Italian economic history may pose a problem for the nonspecialist. Despite a long introductory chapter and three appendixes, the book provides little systematic treatment of long-term political and social processes and virtually no discussion of the large theoretical issues that have for so long provided a focus for discussions of the Italian case. Rosario Romeo is dismissed in a sentence, Antonio Gramsci gets only an oblique reference, and Alexander Gerschenkron is judged as innovative in his effort to work out an industrial index but ultimately misleading in endeavoring to place Italy within a comparative typology. Rather than getting caught up in debates on the particular causes of Italian economic development or on identifying an Italian take-off, Vera Zamagni favors an approach that stresses long-term patterns, where each period throws up new challenges requiring fresh imagination and renewed commitment. Much of...