Family Life in
Central Italy
1880-1910. Sharecropping, Wage Labor,
and Coresidence
An investigation of coresidence and family organization among sharecroppers and peasants in Bertalia, Bologna, a parish located in the central Italian agricultural region of Emilia-Romagna, the book describes the spread of rural capitalism, the agrarian crisis of the 1880s, and the occupational and demographic changes that accompanied urban and industrial growth at the turn of the century.
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Published: 06/01/1984
ISBN: 0813509785
Pages: 250
Available at
Full summary
Exploring the connection between mode of production and household composition the book describes how while the braccianti (agricultural laborers) typically lived in simple family households, sharecroppers commonly lived in three-generation multiple family households comprised of elderly parents, unmarried daughters, married sons, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren.
1985 Marraro Prize (Society for Italian Historical Studies)
for "the best work on Italian history"
International Editions
Italian
IL MULINO, 1983