The authors of this book first gathered in the spring of 1992, at the Graduate School of the City University of New York, to embark on a discussion of the “Italian Southern Question, Representations and Realities.” Shaped by several different disciplines - anthropology, history, literature, sociology, political science - and by scholarly traditions on both sides of the Atlantic, they discovered, first and foremost, that they shared a great deal of common ground regarding this problem. The experience led to a conference, held in Tarrytown, New York, in May 1995, where participants presented and worked over formal papers that addressed the emerging common themes. I would like to thank the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, which not only funded the conference but encouraged the publication of this, the resulting volume, with a small subsidy.
On behalf of the volume authors and Berg Publishers, I also wish to express appreciation to the University Seminars at Columbia University for financial assistance in the preparation of the manuscript for publication. Several of the contributing authors belong to the University Seminar on Studies in Modern Italy, and have presented related material at seminar meetings, benefiting from discussions there. The following colleagues helped the project come to fruition in other ways, from reading drafts of conference proposals or the introductory essay to joining the dialogue in one or another of its several settings: Jeffrey Cole, Vincent Crapanzano, Kate Creehan, and Michael Herzfeld. A perceptive and knowledgeable anonymous reader for Berg made significant criticisms and suggestions. I am grateful to all for their contributions; none, of course, is responsible for the outcome. Finally, thanks are owed to four Italy-bound graduate students of CUNY — Ann Berg, Stanley Davis, Maria Hart, and Christine Tartaglia — who served the conference as rapporteurs and to my daughter, Julia Schneider, who generously donated time and computer expertise to the final preparation of the manuscript.