Figure 1.--The photograph here shows a group of boys in an unidentfied southern Italian village just after World War II. A similr image could have been taken througout the early-20th century up through World War II. Younger boys especilly in ghe south rrely war shoes.

Italy until after World War II was one of the poorest countries in Europe. The Kingdom of Italy was fondd around the Piedmont monarrchy of northern Italy (1861). The south was very poor, almost feudal with much of the population still rural peasants. Most of the Italian people worked in the fields, the vast majority as sharecroppers. The South had not great factories. That was even more true in some regions as Basilicata where almost all people had own sustenance by agriculture or as sharecroppers or as daily farmhands, or as fields owners. It was this that generated massive emigration to the United States, Argentina, Brazil, and other countries beginning in the late-19th centuy. People emigrated from all over Italy, but especially from the south where economic conditions were especilly depressed. Another element worth noteing is that the poor agricultural families are very large. On the previuous page we see a good example. That is influenced by several elements. The Catholic tradition sees the children as a blessing. Sometime there was also a certain 'machismo' of the men that so showed their stamina. During the Fascist time the regime actively promoted large families as a component of national power. Mussolini constantly bragged about his '8 million bayonets'. On the other hand in the traditional organization of the agicultural work with few or no machines the children was work force since early age, while the expenses were limited: the same poor meal of the family, old clothing that wore the older brothers, no shoes. The photograph here shows a group of boys in an unidentfied southern Italian village just after World War II (figure 1).

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Created: 10:36 AM 6/28/2017
Last updated: 11:31 PM 6/28/2017