Full Description
This monograph analyzes the developments in rural life in detail and at the same time places them in a wider context, exploring the strengths and weaknesses of theoretical writings on modern agriculture. What is revealed is a profound transformation in the rationality of farming, one which touches every aspect of the lives of rural people.
Contents
Acknowledgements -- List of Illustrations -- ONE Introduction -- Capitalist agriculture -- Technological change -- Rationality -- Two sides of the river -- Outline of the book -- TWO Hard Work and No Money: Share-Cropping in Tuscany -- Landlords -- Farm and household -- Production and consumption -- Political movement -- THREE Like Birds Freed from a Cage: Economic Changes in the Family-Farming Sector -- Land-Reform -- + 1955-1980: The first post-reform generation -- 1980 Onwards and the growth of wage-labour -- Co-operatives -- FOUR Experiences of Farming Since the Land-Reform -- The post-war experience -- The household -- Accounting -- FIVE An Economy of Scale: Wine Production on the Montalcino Estates -- The slow death of the Mezzadria -- Investment in wine production -- Estate production -- SIX Marks of Distinction -- Quantity -- Quality -- The happy island -- SEVEN Conclusion -- Farming and the transformation of nature -- Ecological economics -- Appendix 1 Statistical Material for Family-Farming Sector -- Appendix 2 Production Costs for Brunello Wine -- Bibliography -- Author Index -- Subject Index.
