Nazione, sviluppo economico e questione meridionale in Italia

The writings collected in the volume revolve around three themes: the birth of Italy as a modern nation, the economic development of the unified state, and the Southern question. Three major issues closely intertwined, with the first serving as the theoretical platform and historical backdrop for the other two, based on the author's belief that nations are living organisms that are born, grow, die, and begin to die when they lose memory and awareness of the historical reasons and ideal and material values in the name of which they were born. The Italian nation, therefore, will not die only if it manages to keep alive and current the memory of the historical reasons and the immense ethical and ideal heritage for which it was born to political life in 1861 and of which, through troubled, tragic, but also glorious events, it has been, and can still be, a bearer. And of that historical heritage, the balanced economic and civil development of the entire national territory was and is an essential component.