Tuff City

This is an important book. In a whole series of ways this study of contemporary Naples will set a bench-mark for urban studies and the way urban history is carried out. It is a book about Naples and thus about the particularities and peculiarities of that specific city. However, this is also a book which goes way beyond Naples itself. It has a lot to tell us about the way the city can and should be studied – about urban studies methodologies – and in this area it is highly original and in some ways sets a new agenda for other researchers, historians, anthropologists, ethnologists, and those using cultural studies approaches. John Foot, University College London This is one of the best books I have read: beautifully written and extremely well researched (a refreshing mix of archival research and participant observation) and superbly theorized, with an impressive knowledge of the range of urban theory, as well as meticulous historical contextualization. Jo Labanyi, New York University …[A]n interesting and readable text. It is scholarly, ambitious in scope and well written.