Stanislao Pugliese

As Ida Susser writes in reference to Belmonte's Broken Fountain, "good ethnographies have long lives." This classic of urban anthropology, one of the most acclaimed ethnographies of recent years, offers vivid, literary descriptions of Fontana del Re, an impoverished Neapolitan neighborhood. Belmonte documents the struggles of Neapolitans surrounded by crumbling buildings and economic insecurity. He details family dynamics as well as the working of Naples's informal economy, the day-to-day struggle for economic subsistence, and the intermittent begging and thieving of the young. Taking us from the bustling, vibrant, and gritty streets and alleyways of Naples to the kitchen tables of poor Neapolitan homes, Belmonte resists simplistic depictions of the poor. Instead, he presents subtle, compelling portraits and analyses that capture the emotional, social, and economic lives of his subjects. In addition to the continuing relevance of his insights into the effects of poverty, Belmonte's willingness to reflect on his own reactions and emotions while in the field has influenced a generation of scholars. In The Broken Fountain, he poignantly describes the experience of living alone in a strange urban environment and his interactions with the residents of Fontana del Re. This edition includes a foreword by Ida Susser and an afterword by Pellegrino D'Acierno and Stanislao G. Pugliese.

A volume of essays that examine more than 2,000 years of Italian Jewish history, from ancient Rome to contemporary developments concerning assimilation, literature, and the recent trial of a former SS captain implicated in crimes against humanity. The essays make clear that the Italian Jews have a unique history in Europe. A Jewish colony existed in Rome 200 years before the birth of Christ; the Eternal City therefore represents the oldest Jewish community in the Western world. Successive waves of immigrants created dozens of Jewish communities on the peninsula. Depending on the time and the place, Italian Jews could expect tolerance, discrimination, persecution, or outright violence. Still, they fared better than their brethren in other parts of Europe. Because of their long history on the peninsula, the volume covers an astonishing variety of subjects: from legal discrimination and historical sources to Jewish dancing masters in the Renaissance; from architecture to contradictory interpretations of the Holocaust; from the special section on the linguistic and moral power of Primo Levi to child-rearing manuals of 17th-century Livorno. In addition, two Holocaust survivors recount their experiences in an extraordinary section, The Language of the Witness. Engaging essays for scholars, students, and other researchers interested in Italian Studies and the roles the peninsula's Jewish population played through history.