Unraveled

by Krause, Elizabeth L.

• ISBN13: 9780520258488
• ISBN10: 0520258487
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-09-17
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr

Summary

Deftly bridging literary conventions, this compelling work exposes the cultural origins of a quiet revolution that occurred over the course of the twentieth century. Elizabeth Krause combines novelistic and ethnographic techniques to illuminate population dynamics that have raised alarm across Europe and the United States, and manifested, for example, in Italy's extremely low birthrate. But what actually motivates people to have fewer children? Krause turns to the evocative story of one woman, Emilia Raugei, who was born in a Tuscan hilltown in 1920 and worked as a straw weaver in a rapidly globalizing economy to better understand this question. Based on extensive fieldwork, including indepth conversations with Emilia herself, Krause draws on her rich and unconventional memories to create an engaging portrait of life in a rural village during Mussolini's rise to power-it is a tale of migration, love and loss, political turmoil, and the struggle to make a living during hard times. Giving voice to a largely silent history that is at once local and global,Unraveled: A Weaver's Tale of Life Gone Modernwill challenge us to find innovative approaches to understanding the transformative shift to a modern way of life.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Cast of Characters

Acknowledgments

Introduction

History Imagined

Postcards

Abandoned

Telling Time

Fascist Folk

Giotto's Circle

Blood Relations

Chains

Rations

War Country

Resistance

American Chocolates

Only One

Memory Encountered

Neighbors

A Weaver's Tale

Progress

Singles' Sexuality

Amazing Grace

A Burning Question

Generation Gap

"Wet" and Hidden Economies

Epilogue

Notes

References

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.