|
The Italians | 
 enlarge | Author: Luigi Barzini
Publisher: Touchstone
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
Buy Used: $0.97
You Save: $15.03 (94%)
New (38) Used (50) Collectible (1) from $0.97
Avg. Customer Rating:  19 reviews
Sales Rank: 25135
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.5 x 1
ISBN: 0684825007
Dewey Decimal Number: 914.5
EAN: 9780684825007
ASIN: 0684825007
Publication Date: July 3, 1996
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Standard used condition.
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
In this consummate portrait of the Italian people, bestselling author, publisher, journalist, and politician Luigi Barzini delves deeply into the Italian national character, discovering both its great qualities and its imperfections. Barzini is startlingly frank as he examines "the two Italies": the one that created and nurtured such luminaries as Dante Alighieri, St. Thomas of Aquino, and Leonardo da Vinci; the other, feeble and prone to catastrophe, backward in political action if not in thought, "invaded, ravaged, sacked, and humiliated in every century." Deeply ambivalent, Barzini approaches his task with a combination of love, hate, disillusion, and affectionate paternalism, resulting in a completely original, thoughtful, and probing picture of his countrymen.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 14 more reviews...
Superfluous Cynicism. August 28, 2007
17 out of 20 found this review helpful
This elegant, but dated book appears to fit Mr. Barzini's pessimistic generation. Which after living through two world wars & the great depression is understandable. However, as he stated in the preface this is not a scholarly or scientific analysis. The reader should take his observations with a "block of salt." It is safe to say that the vast majority of books on national character are usually oversimplifications.
But, at times the author hits the target of the elusive Italian national character. I would read the forward & conclusion first, & than the book in its entirety. The heart of the book for me is on pages 331-4. As for the chapters, I will critique each in order, & give the most informative pages. Ch1, Visit Italy & you will find out for yourself. Ch2, history entices visitors. The main pages are 25-7. Ch3, This is very subjective, & all individuals must find out on his/her own, main pages of interest are 54-7. Ch4, This was repetitive, spectacle an ancient habit, main pages 68-70. Ch5, There is some truth for sure, pages 80-1, 92-3 & 100 are very intruiging. the latter page was even funny. Ch6, About the economics of the country as a whole. This was very dated even when the author wrote it. Ch7, hero or Benito lite? You will find this one very deep indeed.
Ch8, it is true enough that double delusions can increase chaos in ones society. Ch9, comfort with the status quo? Ch10, the Italians never truly adopted the farce of feudalism. Ch11, The refuge & torment of family. Pages 190-2 are very good. His analysis about the vast commonalities between Italian, Jewish, & Chinese families was truly striking. The economist Thomas Sowell noted the same traits in his 1981 book, Ethnic America. Ch12, this chapter could easily apply to any western society, there was nothing new here. Ch14, this was an enigma inside a labyrinth, pages 260-70 made for some noteworthy observations. Ch15, pages 283-92 will make the reader think deeply about life. Ch16, perhaps, the most interesting chapter? pages 309-13 were filled with the most fascinating facts. On the whole the author addresses the problems of a very divided society with some brilliant historical analysis. The pervasive problems of Italian society are there for all to see. But, Mr. Barzini gives no solutions. In certain ways he hints at the answers in chapter 7, "The Obsession With Antiquity." When the reader truly wants to know how & why Italians have remained so divided over the past fifteen centuries you will have to go back & study the late Roman empire. I suggest any books by Michael Grant or Adrain Goldsworthy as a good start.
entertaining May 22, 2007
15 out of 15 found this review helpful
Luigi Barzini has a unique style and presents his theories on the Italian psyche in an entertaining collection of anecdotes. Keep in mind that the view of Italians that the journalist Barzini presents here is his view, and in the beginning of the book he states that it is not a scientific study, simply an entertainment. With that in mind, the book delivers on the author's purpose.
 molto buono!!! March 19, 2007
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
If you have ever been to Italy, if you are Italian (100% or 8%), if you've ever known anybody Italian or eaten Italian food, this tome will shed light & help make sense of this beautiful country and her idiosyncratic inhabitants. A first edition paperback graced my grandparent's bookshelf since as far back as I can remember (30+ years). I took it home after my grandma (an Italian immigrant) passed away at the age of 97. I haven't been able to put it down since. If you're Italian, this book just verbalizes what you've known or at least suspected your whole life. If your not Italian, then you will probably say to yourself many times over, "that explains a lot!"
Happy reading!
Viva Italia!
No One Really Writes Books Like This Any More December 16, 2006
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
This was required reading before I spent a semester in Italy 20 or so years ago. Once I picked it up I couldn't put it down. Maybe this is because of political correctness but few people write books like this anymore where the writer has the guts to try to capture a nation's soul using history, journalism and personal experience. Barazini clearly loves his country but it's much the way one loves a hapless friend.....you know, a Beaver Cleaver type. The country has many incredible characteristics but can never find a way to leverage its brilliance into becoming a respected actor on the world stage. According to Barzini, Italy is destined to be a lot like Monty Python's Camelot: great in theory but ultimately a "silly place."
Written with Italian vivacity The beauty of the people September 18, 2005
13 out of 16 found this review helpful
I just read a small excerpt of this book which I read in its entirety many years ago. I found the writing especially lively and interesting.
I also visited in Italy some months ago and have my impressions of that time to compare with what Barzini says. I also might add that I grew up in a neighborhood in Troy New York where we had many Siciliano neighbors who were our enemies at time but mostly our friends.
I also have a deep and sympathetic relation to the vast creative capacity of the Italian people throughout the generations, both in visual arts and in music. And I am aware too of the historical role, sunny Italy played for those lost in the cold north who dreamed of new life Goethelike in the land of the south. I too know that one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world is the community of Rome which as I recently saw is sadly depleted and has not recovered from the terrible deportations in the time of the Nazis.
All this as prelude to saying that Barzini does not give a comprehensive description of Italian character, but rather a series of essays which show to the reader aspects of Italian life.
The Italians lively, energetic, clinging to their own homes and ways so closely, so richly musical, so passionate in their enjoyment in life , seemed at one time to set a standard for how human beings should live.
I do not know how much of this book is dated, and how much Italy today is simply a depleted, demographically dying, aging and tired society.
In our recent visit to Italy though I felt a strong sense of the beauty of the place and the beauty of people.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
